Modifying the Sharepoint Homepage

Now that we've created a picture library, let's put it onto the homepage.

Click the "Home" link on the top navigation bar to get to the front page. Notice that the "Picture Libraries" link on the Left shows the Staff List we just created.

Our goal is to have Sharepoint Services display the Staff List on the front page.

Sidebar: Web Parts and Zones

The list we created, along with the Announcements list are called "Web Parts" in the language of Sharepoint Services.
As we'll see, we can bring Web Parts onto the homepage to customize the look of the page. There are specified areas on the homepage that can accept web parts. These areas are called Zones.


On the upper right corner of the screen you should see a link "Modify Shared Page". If you have the correct security permissions you can "Browse" for web parts. We should see the Staff List we just created.

If you click and hold your mouse button over the list you can drag it out over the grey boxes around the existing lists - these are the Zones that can accept web parts.

Try this a few times and you'll get the hang of it.

When you've done this, click the small "X" by the menu on the right. This will take the page out of "Modify" mode.
Now your homepage contains the Staff List you created previously.

Sidebar

You can bring any list onto the homepage in the same way. You can also bring multiple versions of the same list onto the homepage - this is useful if you want to show different views of the list. We'll cover off views later.

Customizing A Sharepoint Picture Library

So now we have a great picture library. Without changing a thing you have a robust place to store staff pictures.

In this tutorial we'll look at enhancing this list. The skills you learn here can be used on all your Sharepoint lists.

Modifying the Picture List

We are going to add more information about the pictures we store in this library.

Let's say we want to list the department for this person. For this example we will assume that there are four departments

• sales
• warehouse
• engineering
• administration
  

OK, With the Staff List we've just built, look on the left hand bar. You should see a link for "Modify Settings and Columns". It shown here

This link takes you to the area where we can modify features of this list. Notice that we can add extra information columns or we can change the way we view the information. Let's add a column, so click the link labeled "Add a new column".

This screen shows the different types of information that Sharepoint can store. This includes

• Dates
• Currency
• Choice (so users can choose from a list of options)
• text and many more.
  

We're going to have a "Choice" column, since we want to offer only the departments we have identified.

Let's call the column "Department". When you select the "Choice" column, Sharepoint will change the screen and display a text box. Into this box we can enter the different department names; one per line. The departments are:-

• Sales
• Warehouse
• Engineering
• Administration.
  

Tip: you could cut-and-paste the above list right into the text box.

Once you have the departments entered, Click "Save" here to see the results.

If you go back to the list, you will see that there is now additional information - the Department. Click the "Edit" option for the picture we put into the library - or select "New" to upload another picture.

Notice now that there is a place to select the department name - but you can only choose from the four we gave. If you later want to add more departments, simply go back to the "Modify" screen and add the new department to the list.

Task For You

Before you go onto the next article, add in two new columns called "First Name" and "Surname". Perhaps also upload a few more staff pictures to make it interesting. Don't forget to add the details!