How to Create a SharePoint Custom List in 3 Easy Steps

Human Beings love lists. Whether it is a list of your favorite movies or the best cat videos of 2009 putting things in list format makes our brains light up with delight. Building a SharePoint Custom List can be helpful for that reason and a number of more important ones.  In this article we will take a look at how you can put one together on your own in three simple steps. A list like this can be used in many different ways and includes many types of data from pictures to dates to calculations and more. It’s like the Buzz Lightyear of SharePoint, it goes “To infinity and beyond”.

These lists can be used as calendars, blogs, announcements or discussion boards and users can add content to them.

 

1) Create a SharePoint custom list from a list template

You will want to go into Windows SharePoint Services and click ‘create’ on the all site content page. Then, depending on what kind of SharePoint custom list you want, you will choose something like ‘contacts’ or ‘calendar.’ As we have discussed, you have a lot of options at your disposal. The possibilities are endless and you are going to be able to use your list in a myriad of different ways. Our advice is to start simple and then move on to more complex lists.

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2) Give it a name and a description

You are not going to know what to use your new list for and how to distinguish it from others if you do not give it a name and a description. The name can be anything, but make sure you give it an accurate description to set it apart from the others.

 

3) Add some columns

It is time to put some columns in your new list. How many? Maybe one, perhaps five, even ten. It is totally up to you and you can use however many you want. As previously stated it really depends on how you want to use your list, and once you have decided, you will be able to determine how many columns you should add. Once you have added some columns to your list you are all ready to go and begin using your list. Easy as pie. Interestingly the idiom “as easy as pie” refers not to making pie but actually to eating it. The more you know.

 

Just like that you have created an incredibly versatile list to be used in whatever way you want. Once you get the hang of creating a SharePoint custom list, you will be able to churn them out at a quick pace and will be able to use them for whatever you want. They can be as simple or as complex as you want to make them and you can play with them in whatever way you like. We hope this tutorial was helpful and that you will be able to begin using lists all the time. Now that you know how to create them in just a few clicks, there is no excuse not to!

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Marissa Hart is the Lead Author & Editor ShareMe. ShareMe is a blog focused on SharePoint Online. SharePoint Online delivers the powerful features of SharePoint without the associated overhead of managing the infrastructure.