Discovering Default Lists in a Site

Many default lists are included with Windows SharePoint Services. When you need to create a list, you can use the default list templates by using the Create option from the Site Actions menu to generate a new list with a static set of predefined columns. Later in this chapter, we’ll explore how additional columns can be added and how most default columns can be altered or deleted, even after data have been entered into a list. The list templates built into Windows SharePoint Services are described in the following table.

Open table as spreadsheet

Meeting Workspaces		Team Sites, Wikis, Blogs
Icon	List Template	Site Type	Description
	Agenda		Create an Agenda list when you want to outline the meeting topics, who will cover them, and how much time each presenter is allotted.
	Announcements		Create an Announcements list when you want a place to share news, status, and other short bits of information.
	Calendar		Create a Calendar list when you want a calendar-based view of upcoming meetings, deadlines, and other important events. You can share information between your Calendar list and Microsoft Office Outlook.
	Contacts		Create a Contacts list when you want to manage information about people with whom your team works with, such as customers or partners. You can share information between your Contacts list and Office Outlook.
	Custom		Create a Custom list when you want to specify your own columns. The list opens as a Web page and allows you to add or edit items one at a time.
	Custom list in Datasheet view		Create a Custom list when you want to specify your own columns. The list opens in a spreadsheet-like environment for convenient data entry, editing, and formatting. It requires Microsoft Office Access on the client and ActiveX control support.
	Decisions		Create a Decisions list when you want to keep track of all decisions made at the meeting. Attendees and others can then review the results of the meeting.
	Discussion Board		Create a discussion board when you want to provide a place for newsgroup-style discussion. Discussion boards provide features for managing discussion threads and ensuring that only approved posts appear.
	Document Library		Create a document library when you have a collection of documents or other files that you want to share. Document libraries support features such as folders, versioning, and check out.
	Form Library		Create a form library when you have XML-based business forms, such as status reports or purchase orders, that you want to manage. These libraries require an XML editor, such as Microsoft Office InfoPath.
	Import Spreadsheet		Import a spreadsheet when you want to create a list that has the same columns and contents as an existing spreadsheet. Importing a spreadsheet requires Microsoft Office Excel.
	Issue Tracking		Create an Issue Tracking list when you want to manage a set of issues or problems. You can assign, prioritize, and follow the progress of issues from start to finish.
	Links		Create a Links list when you have links to Web pages or other resources that you want to share. Objectives Create an Objectives list when you want to let your at tendees know your goals for the meeting. Every meeting should begin with a purpose in mind.
	Objectives		Create an Objectives list when you want to let your attendees know your goals for the meeting. Every meeting should begin with a purpose in mind.
	Picture Library		Create a picture library when you have pictures you want to share. Picture libraries provide special features for managing and displaying pictures such as thumbnails, download options, and a slide show. Pictures can even be edited using a built-in ActiveX control.
	Project Tasks		Create a Project Tasks list when you want a graphical view (a Gantt Chart) of a group of work items that you or your team needs to complete. You can share information between your Project Tasks list and Outlook.
	Survey		Create a survey when you want to poll other Web site users. Surveys provide features that allow you to quickly create questions and define how users specify their answers.
	Tasks		Create a Tasks list when you want to track a group of work items that you or your team must complete.
	Text Box		Create a text box when you want to insert custom text into the meeting, such as instructions or motivational quotes.
	Things To Bring		Create a list of things that attendees should bring to be prepared for the meeting such as notebooks, handouts, or something to eat.
	Wiki Page Library		Create a wiki page library when you want to have an interconnected collection of wiki pages. Wiki page libraries support pictures, tables, hyperlinks, and wiki linking.

As discussed in Chapter 3, “Creating and Managing Sites,” Windows SharePoint Services will provision some of these lists for you when you create a new site depending on which site template you use.

• The three collaboration sites provision lists as follows.

  • The Blank Site template has no lists or document libraries.

  • Both the Team Site template and Document Workspace template provision a Shared Documents library and four lists: Announcements, Calendar, Links, Tasks, and a Team Discussion board. We will discuss Document Workspaces in detail in Chapter 7, “Working with Document Workspaces.”

• The Blog site template provisions a picture library called Photos and five lists: Categories (Custom list), Comments (Custom list), Links, Other Blogs (Links list), and Posts (Custom list).

• The Wiki site template only provisions a single wiki page library called Wiki Pages.

• The Meeting Workspace templates all provision unique lists such as Agenda, Attendees, Decisions, Objectives, and Things To Bring. We will discuss Meeting Workspaces in detail in Chapter 8, “Working with Meeting Workspaces.”

In the following exercise, you will first browse to the lists created for the Wide World Importers’ top-level site. Subsequently, you will browse to the Create page to see the list templates available when you create a new Team Site.

OPEN a top-level SharePoint site. The exercise will use the http://wideworldimporters site, but you can use whatever site you wish. If prompted, type your user name and password, and click OK.

BE SURE TO verify that you have sufficient rights to browse the site and create lists. If in doubt, see the Appendix on page 435.

1. In the left navigation panel, click View All Site Content to display the All Site Content page.

This team site has one default document library called Shared Documents; four default lists: Announcements, Calendar, Links, and Tasks; and a discussion board called Team Discussion. The bottom of this page also lists any immediate child sites and the Recycle Bin (discussed later in this chapter).

2. On the toolbar, click Create to display the Create page.

Tip 

Don’t be confused by the naming convention here. The names of list templates are identical to the names of the default lists generated by Windows SharePoint Services; however, they are radically different things. Each list template shown on the Create page could be used to create one or more uniquely named instances in the All Site Content page. For example, the Announcements list template was used to create the Announcements list, but the resulting list could have been called something entirely different, such as Sales Notices. The names do not have to be identical.

CLOSE the browser.

Tip 

Because the Windows SharePoint Services administration pages are now security trimmed, you wouldn’t see the first four columns on the Create page if you didn’t have permission to create a list.