Work with content in lists and libraries
- 1/31/2017
In this sample chapter from Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Step by Step, discover how libraries and lists can help you manage documents more efficiently—from initial organization to working offline.
Microsoft SharePoint lists and libraries provide information management and collaboration capabilities. You can think of SharePoint 2016 lists as spreadsheets that you and your coworkers can simultaneously use. SharePoint lists represent editable, web-based tables that facilitate concurrent, multi-user interactions against a common, centralized, extensible set of columns and rows. All of the webpages you need to create, review, update, delete, and manage lists and their data are automatically and dynamically generated by SharePoint.
One of the most compelling features that SharePoint 2016 provides is libraries. A library can be thought of as a list of files. Just as lists provide an effective way to work with all types of data they contain, SharePoint libraries function similarly for documents and files, such as Microsoft Word documents. By using SharePoint document libraries, you can filter and group documents and view metadata for documents stored in the library.
This chapter guides you through procedures related to discovering lists and libraries in a site, creating and populating lists and libraries, checking files out and working with versions, organizing lists and libraries, deleting and restoring list items and documents, staying up to date with content changes, and working offline.
Discover lists and libraries in a site
SharePoint 2016 includes several templates that you can use to create the default types of lists and libraries. In SharePoint, each list and library is implemented as an app. You can choose a template app from the list and library apps available in the Your Apps page to generate a new list or library with a specific predefined functionality and set of columns. Each list or library app has a specific purpose, and its tile visually indicates the type of list or library the app will create. Later in this chapter, the “Organize lists and libraries” topic explores how to add, alter, and delete columns in lists and libraries; most default columns can be altered or deleted, even after data has been entered into them.
There are 20 list apps and 10 library apps provided by SharePoint 2016; these are described in the following table.
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Your site might provide a different number of default list and library apps, depending on your SharePoint 2016 edition, the enabled features, or the Microsoft Office 365 plan that your organization subscribes to.
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To display all apps available on your site
Go to the Your Apps page by doing any of the following:
On the Settings menu, select Add an app.
On the Quick Launch, select Site Contents, and then on the Site Contents page, select the add an app tile.
On the Get started with your site page, select the Add lists, libraries, and other apps tile.
To display the list apps available on your site
Display the Your Apps page.
In the search box at the top of the page, enter list.
Press Enter on the keyboard or select the Search icon.
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Your SharePoint setup determines which list apps are available on your site
To display the library apps available on your site
Display Your Apps the page.
In the search box at the top of the page, enter library.
Press Enter on the keyboard or select the Search button to start the search.
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Your SharePoint setup determines which library apps are available on your site