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About this lesson

Create functional and feature-rich lists and share them with others.

Quick reference

Microsoft Lists

Learn how to use Microsoft Lists and how you can integrate Lists into Microsoft Teams.

When to use

We can use the Lists app whenever we want to create a functional, detailed list that can be shared with others.

Instructions

Microsoft Lists are so much more than just simple lists. 

  • Click on the App Launcher
  • Click Lists

Create a List

  • Click New List

We can create a list in several ways: Blank list, From existing list, From Excel, or Templates. 

A blank list provides a completely blank canvas where we can create lists from scratch. We can create a list based on an existing list from a team or site or we can import a list from Excel. Alternatively, we could use one of the in-built templates. 

  • Click the Employee Onboarding template

List templates don't come pre-populated with data. The template provides the column headings. 

  • Click Use template
  • Enter a name for the list
  • Give the list a Description
  • Choose a color and an icon
  • In the Save to dropdown, choose My lists

  • Click Create

We can now add data and list items to our new list. 

Add Items to a List

  • Click New
  • Complete the fields for the list item
  • Click Save

View Lists

  • Go to the Lists home page
  • Click the drop-down next to Recent lists and select My lists
  • Click on a list to open

Import a List from Microsoft Excel

  • Click New list
  • Click From Excel
  • Click Upload file
  • Find the file in File Explorer and click Open

The table data from Excel will open in the Customize window. Check that the data looks correct. Change the column types as required. 

  • Click Next
  • Give the list a Name and Description (optional)
  • Choose a color and an icon
  • Save to My lists
  • Click Create

The list is now created. We can edit the data by clicking in the field or by clicking the Edit in grid view button. 

Share a List with a Teams Channel

We can share a list directly with teammates in a specific Microsoft Teams channel. 

Create a New List
  • Click New list
  • Select the Issue Tracker template
  • Give your list a Name and Description
  • Choose a color and an icon
  • In the Save to field, click the drop-down
  • Select the Project Alpha channel
  • Click Create
Open a List in Teams
  • From the App Launcher, click Teams
  • Select the General channel in the Project Alpha team
  • Click the three dots in the left-hand menu
  • In the Search for apps field, type Lists
  • Select the Lists app
  • Click Add to team
  • Select the Project Alpha > General channel
  • Click Set up a tab
  • Click Save
  • Click Add an existing list
  • Select the Issue tracker list

Hints & tips

  • Click the star icon on any list to add it to Favorites
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  • 00:04 In this course, we are mainly focusing on the primary applications within Microsoft
  • 00:09 365, where the main type of functionality is collaboration and communication.
  • 00:14 But I thought it might be good to, over the next few lessons,
  • 00:18 take a look at some of the lesser known applications and components in Microsoft
  • 00:23 365 that aren't really considered primary applications but serve a useful purpose.
  • 00:29 And the first application we're going to look at is Microsoft Lists.
  • 00:33 Now, when we think of a list,
  • 00:35 we don't think of anything that is particularly complex, but
  • 00:39 when you utilize Microsoft Lists, it's so much more than just a simple list.
  • 00:45 So let's dive in and take a look.
  • 00:48 So we're going to go to the app launcher, and we're going to select Lists.
  • 00:52 Now once again, I don't have any lists on this account, so
  • 00:56 we're going to create one from scratch.
  • 00:58 Notice the new list button at the top.
  • 01:00 Let's click it.
  • 01:02 And once again, we have quite a few different options.
  • 01:05 So if we want to create and store a list from scratch, we could choose Blank list.
  • 01:11 We could also choose to create a list based off of an existing list.
  • 01:16 So if I click on My list,
  • 01:17 these are lists that I've created previously within Microsoft Lists, but
  • 01:22 notice that I also have access to those two Microsoft 365 groups as well.
  • 01:27 So you can see how this again ties into different parts of Microsoft 365.
  • 01:32 If I click on Sample Team Site, for example,
  • 01:35 you can see that it's picked up that I have two different lists that I could
  • 01:40 possibly use in this particular team site.
  • 01:43 So I could choose one of those.
  • 01:46 Now in this instance, I'm not going to do that.
  • 01:48 So let's click on the back arrow.
  • 01:50 We can choose to import a list that we have stored off in Excel.
  • 01:54 And we are actually going to do that in just a moment.
  • 01:58 And then underneath, we have a whole bunch of templates.
  • 02:02 For example, if I was to select the Employee onboarding template,
  • 02:06 let's click on that, the templates basically give you
  • 02:09 the headings that you need in order to create your lists.
  • 02:13 So for Employee onboarding, we have column headings like Work, Description,
  • 02:17 Complete by, Complete, Completed On, so on and so forth.
  • 02:21 So the templates don't actually give you the list items that you see here,
  • 02:25 they give you the column headings.
  • 02:28 So if I say use template just here, I can rename this to something else if I want.
  • 02:33 I'm going to keep it on Employee onboarding.
  • 02:36 We can add a description.
  • 02:37 We could choose a color.
  • 02:39 Let's go for red.
  • 02:40 And we could even choose an icon.
  • 02:42 So let's go for the rocket.
  • 02:44 And then I could choose where I want to save this list.
  • 02:48 And I have a choice of My lists, or I could choose either of these groups.
  • 02:53 Now I'm going to save it into My lists.
  • 02:56 Let's click on Create.
  • 02:56 And that's exactly what I get.
  • 02:59 So I get all of the column headings from that template, and
  • 03:02 I can now go through, click on the New button, and I can start to add list items.
  • 03:07 So I've added in a little bit of detail here.
  • 03:10 For our Employee onboarding, we need to issue them with a security pass.
  • 03:14 You can see that this needs to be complete on the first day that they arrive, and
  • 03:18 their mentor is Adele.
  • 03:20 Let's click on Save, and it's going to add that list item into the template.
  • 03:25 So very simple to go through and add more items to your list.
  • 03:29 Now let's click back on Microsoft Lists to go back to the main hub.
  • 03:33 If I click the dropdown just here next to Recent lists and choose My lists,
  • 03:37 this is where I'm going to see the list that I've created.
  • 03:40 So you can see that I've got a couple in here and
  • 03:43 the Employee onboarding is the one that we just created.
  • 03:47 If I click on this star, it's going to move it up to favorites.
  • 03:50 So really nice and straightforward.
  • 03:53 Let's click New list again and
  • 03:55 take a look at how we would do this if we already have a list in Microsoft Excel.
  • 04:00 So I do have a list in Excel.
  • 04:02 You can see it here.
  • 04:03 It's just a very short list that shows some products if they're in stock and
  • 04:07 their price.
  • 04:09 So maybe I want to import this information into Microsoft Lists.
  • 04:13 Now the important thing to note here is that if you do have this information in
  • 04:18 an Excel file, you need to make sure that it's in an Excel table.
  • 04:22 Now if you're not sure how to do that, press Ctrl+T, and
  • 04:26 then stipulate if your data has headings or not.
  • 04:28 I've also given my table a name and I've called it Product_List.
  • 04:33 So now that we have that, I could choose the From Excel option and
  • 04:37 I can choose to upload the file.
  • 04:40 There is the file, let's select it and click on Open.
  • 04:44 Now, notice it says Loading tables.
  • 04:46 So it looks for any tables that you have in your Excel workbook.
  • 04:51 So you can see here it has picked up that information, and
  • 04:54 it's telling me check the column types below and
  • 04:57 choose a new type if the current selection is incorrect.
  • 05:01 So I can go through these drop-downs and I can choose the most appropriate option.
  • 05:05 Now I'm going to keep this on title, single line is fine for these, and
  • 05:09 then it's recognized that the prices are numbers.
  • 05:12 So, so far, this looks pretty good.
  • 05:14 Let's click on Next.
  • 05:16 I now get to give my list a name.
  • 05:18 Now, I'm going to name this Inventory.
  • 05:21 I'm going to give it a blue-purple color.
  • 05:24 And let's use this little bug icon.
  • 05:27 And once again, I'm going to save it into My lists.
  • 05:30 Let's click on Create and it's going to go away and import all of that information.
  • 05:35 And I can go through and start adding new items to this list as well.
  • 05:40 Now notice when you are working in a list,
  • 05:42 you do have other options running in this horizontal menu.
  • 05:45 So I could switch into grid view, which allows me to edit in here as well.
  • 05:51 So if I need to make any changes, I can literally click in any of these and
  • 05:56 just over type.
  • 05:57 I can share the list.
  • 05:59 I can export it out to CSV, back to Excel, or even into Power BI.
  • 06:05 I can automate the process by adding in things like rules.
  • 06:09 Now, we're not going to talk about Power Automate in this particular course,
  • 06:13 but you could add automation to your lists.
  • 06:15 And then if we click the three dots,
  • 06:17 we can start doing things like adding in alerts.
  • 06:19 So maybe you want to be notified if anybody else adds something to this list,
  • 06:24 you could choose the Alert me option in order to receive those notifications.
  • 06:28 Now, let's quickly create one final list.
  • 06:32 I'm just going to use one of these templates because the thing that I want to
  • 06:37 highlight here is sharing this list with people in a specific Teams channel.
  • 06:42 Instead of choosing to save to My lists, I'm going to choose Project Alpha.
  • 06:47 Let's click on Create.
  • 06:49 So in the real world, I'd go in, I'd add some list items, but
  • 06:54 if we now open up Teams, what I can do in here is I can make that list
  • 06:59 accessible to all members of the project Alpha General Channel.
  • 07:04 So again, if we click the three dots, we can search for the Lists' app.
  • 07:10 Let's add it to Microsoft Teams.
  • 07:13 Add to team,
  • 07:14 and we can choose the team and channel name that we want to add it to.
  • 07:18 So I want to add this to Project Alpha.
  • 07:22 There it is, the General channel.
  • 07:24 Let's say Set up a tab, and click on Save.
  • 07:28 So notice that in this channel, I now have Lists at the top here, and I get
  • 07:32 the option to create a brand new list from scratch, or I can add an existing list.
  • 07:38 So let's click it, check it out below,
  • 07:40 there is the issue tracker that I assigned to the Project Alpha team.
  • 07:45 So I can simply select this and it's going to add it as a tab at the top here.
  • 07:50 So if I had different items, I'd be able to see those listed underneath here and
  • 07:56 everybody who's a member of this Team channel can also see and
  • 08:00 work on those lists.
  • 08:02 So this is a great way of integrating lists that
  • 08:07 you want many people to work on into your Teams hub.

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