Building A Sharepoint View

A view lets us see Sharepoint Lists in different ways.

Consider the Sharepoint Announcements List we looked at earlier. We could have one view that shows only the last 5 items, or to show only items with a certain configuration.

Or perhaps show the items in alphabetical order.

Each of these are separate Sharepoint views. Each list has a "Default" view that is shown when the list is selected from the homepage.

Let's look at the Announcements List as an example.

If you open go the the Sharepoint list and select the "Modify settings and columns" link on the left side. Once this page has opened scroll to the bottom section titled "Views". This list has only one view - called "All Items". Click on the link and we'll see how this view is defined.

Sidebar

Some Lists are created with a number of Views. The Announcement is one of the simplest and has only the one.

But we'll change that soon.

Scroll down the view and notice the details. It shows

• what Columns of the list are shown on the view. This view should show "Attachments", "Title" and "Modified "
• The Sort order of the items. This view shows that the list will be sorted by "Modified" date and descending; so the most recent entry will be at the top of the list.
  The Filter allows you to hide or show items depending on some criteria. None are specified by default.
• Grouping allows you to collect the items together using certain characteristics. A Staff List, for example, may be grouped by department.
• Totals, Style and Limit are advanced features and will be covered later.

So, now you know how a View is constructed, lets take a look in the next Section: Custom Views