First part of the exercise

  1. Go to the top level of your SharePoint site. Make sure that you are not in a library.
  2. Push the “New” button in the ribbon. 
  3. Select “List”.
  4. On the “create a list” menu, select “Blank list”.
  5. Give it a list title/ name. Read the warning about naming. 
  6. In this exercise we use the title/name [relations]
  7. You can give it a description but this can be edited done after creation of the list.
  8. Check or un-check the site navigation button (this can also be corrected after creation).
  9. Push the “Create” button.
You have just created a list. 

This is a
warning
about naming

When you create a list the first name that you use will create the technical name and as a result, it will create the last section of the URL.

Use a single word if possible or use a hyphen if you cannot.

Spaces will be displayed in the URL as %20. So if you name your list nice list it will be displayed as

https://name-tenant.com/sites/name-site/lists/nice%20list

Training objective

Learn the concept of a list within the structure of a SharePoint site. The resemblance and difference with Excel.

Intro

Everybody uses lists. Some are written on a piece of paper; think of a grocery list.

People create lists in a tool like MS Word which is a tool for text writing. Yes, a list has a writing aspect to it but if you want to filter, or calculate on the list you need to switch to a spreadsheet solution like Excel.

A website solution like SharePoint is based on lists and libraries, containing content items like files (E.g. *.docx, *.xlsx, *.ppt, *.pdf, *.txt, and all kinds of “rich media” files like audio, and video) 

Before we discuss libraries we go to the very basics of a SharePoint list. It has certain advantages over Excel.

  • Versioning on an item level (every row is a uniquely identifiable content item)
  • Predefined views and personal views based on filtering
  • True text fields
  • Pre-defined metadata
  • Record locking on item level can easily be manipulated by multiple users simultaneously

Part 2 of the exercise

Imagine you created an Excel with just 1 column. That’s what you have actually done. By default this column is called title and all items will be text fields.  

Now comes the fun part

You can add specific columns now, just by pushing “Add column”. Give it a try and you see all kinds of formats. 

So much for Monkey see, Monkey do !

Each exercise requires a certain level of independent thinking and acting. It starts simple with imitation and after a few exercises we leave you a little more to your creativity

Now the actual exercise

  • List five zoos and this list describes place name, address, and web address.
  • These zoos are spread over 5 countries and at least 2 continents
  • Don’t hesitate to find the information somewhere on the Internet.