In this section, we're going to start out by talking about a very
important part of SharePoint, and that is lists.
And the reason why they're so important is because basically everything that
you're going to come across in SharePoint is some kind of list.
So just for the time being, let's take SharePoint out of the equation and
take a look at a list that you might already be familiar with.
So here I have an Excel spreadsheet, and Excel is used for many,
many different things.
But fundamentally, it helps you manage rows and columns of data.
And this is essentially a list of information.
We have column headings running across the top.
So for this one, this is an employee list.
I have the employee ID, the first name, last name, department, location, and
salary.
Those are my column headers.
And then, underneath I have my records.
And that is a list.
So let's jump into SharePoint now and
take a look at a SharePoint list that I've already created.
So for this, I'm going to go to the Quick Launch menu, and
I've created a few lists in here.
So I'm going to go into the one that says, Training Contacts.
And what you'll see here is an example of a SharePoint list.
And it takes on that similar structure to the Excel spreadsheet.
We have our headers running across the top, attachments, last name, first name,
so on and so forth.
And then underneath we have all of the records.
Let's take a look at another one of my SharePoint lists.
I'm going to open up the Training Tasks List.
Now this list looks very slightly different.
And this is because I am now using the classic experience in SharePoint.
So the interface is a slightly more old school looking.
When you compare it to, for example,
the training contacts list that we were just in, this looks a bit more modern,
a little bit more slick than the training tasks list.
Now they both hold list information,
it's just the way you're viewing it is very slightly different.
And you might be thinking to yourself, well, this is a little bit confusing,
am I going to be Switching between these different views when I'm using SharePoint?
And unfortunately that might very well be the case.
Microsoft is definitely trying to push everybody towards the modern experience,
the newer experience and phase out the classic experience.
Well for the time being, we do have access to both.
And I have my settings set to choose the best one for the page that I'm on.
So it's decided that for my training tasks list,
the classic experience is going to be the best way to view this page.
And that's absolutely fine.
I can see in here that I have another list.
I have my headers running across the top, task name,
due date, assigned to, and then I have my records.
So another example of a list.
Now what about something a bit different?
Let me jump into the event calendar from my quick launch menu.
Now this shows me a calendar and any events that I have coming up.
You might think to yourself, well, this isn't a list, but
in fact it is, it's just been formatted as a calendar.
In fact, I can view all of the items that I have in my calendar as just a big
standard list if I wanted to.
And this is a good moment to point out when you are working in the classic view,
you have ribbons running across the top, so very much standard Microsoft ribbons.
If I click Calendar, there is my calendar ribbon.
And it's from here, if I jump into views, I can change this view to All Events,
and it's going to show me those items in a list.
And again, we have the column headers, title locations, start time, end time.
And then we have our records.
So just because something is formatted as a calendar,
it is still effectively a list in the background in SharePoint.
Now I'm going to switch this back.
So let's go back to list and I'm going to reformat this as a calendar.
So these are the common types of lists that you'll interact with in SharePoint.
And all of these lists are essentially templates.
And which one you choose depends on the type of list that you want to create.
So if I want to create something completely different,
where can I go to access all of my list templates?
Well, let's jump back to home.
And using our menu running across the top,
if we click the drop down next to New, you can see I have an option for List.
So let's click on this.
This is where I can create a blank list.
I can create a list from an Excel spreadsheet, or
I can create a list from an existing list in SharePoint.
And then underneath that I have different list templates that I could possibly use.
And these templates will essentially define what the columns are or
the column headings are depending on the one that you've selected.
Now these particular templates, these modern looking ones are only available
when you're using the modern experience.
So if you are using the classic experience and
even if you are using the modern experience, you can still access these.
You can go to New and all the way down to App.
And this is going to show you a gallery of different tiles and
all of these are lists or libraries.
So you can see here tasks, I might choose this template to create a task list.
I have contacts for contacts lists.
There's my calendar template.
I have an issue tracking list, all different kinds of things in here.
I can even choose to create my own custom list where I can define the column
headings for my list.
So there are lots of different templates available in SharePoint for
you to create lists and store your data.