Creating a Task List

Quick reference

• 00:04 So now we understand how lists work in SharePoint, it's time for
• 00:08 us to create one.
• 00:09 And what I'm going to do in this example is I'm going to create a training
• 00:13 task list.
• 00:15 So this might be something that contains lots of to do items,
• 00:18 things that need to be done either by myself or other members of the team.
• 00:23 Now one thing you'll notice, if you look at the quick launch menu on the left hand
• 00:27 side is that I've deleted out the training task list that I'd
• 00:30 already created because we're going to recreate it for from scratch.
• 00:34 Now remember when it does come to creating lists in SharePoint,
• 00:37 you have two different options depending on if you're using the modern or
• 00:41 the classic experience.
• 00:43 So if we jump up to the New button and click the drop down,
• 00:47 I could choose to select List from here.
• 00:49 And this is going to show me some of these newer list templates.
• 00:53 And what you'll notice is that I want to create a task list and
• 00:57 the templates that I can see here,
• 00:59 I don't really see anything that matches exactly what I want to do.
• 01:03 I could obviously create a blank list from scratch, but
• 01:06 what I'm going to do is I'm going to use one of the inbuilt task templates.
• 01:11 So let's close this window down and go to our second option when it comes to
• 01:15 creating lists and that is by using a little app.
• 01:18 Now this should look reasonably familiar to you, we have been in here before.
• 01:22 This is the area where you can find all of your list and library templates.
• 01:26 And if we take a look through at the tiles you can see in the top row there,
• 01:31 I have a template for a tasks list.
• 01:34 So let's click it.
• 01:36 Now I will say that one of the best things about using templates for
• 01:39 your lists is that you don't need to define the column headings yourself.
• 01:43 The template already includes them so it saves you quite a bit of time.
• 01:47 Now the first thing we need to do here is we need to give our task list a name.
• 01:52 So in this box, I'm just going to call this, TrainingTasks.
• 01:58 And one thing you'll note there is that I haven't put a space separating those two
• 02:03 words and there is a good reason for that.
• 02:06 Now, the name that you use here is not only the name that users will see, but
• 02:10 it's also the name that will appear in the URL.
• 02:13 Now if you put a space in between two words, what you're going to find is
• 02:17 that in the URL that space is going to be replaced with some strange characters.
• 02:21 So you might see a percentage sign, or a number 20, something like that.
• 02:24 So you end up with quite a messy looking URL.
• 02:28 So in order to avoid that,
• 02:30 I prefer to create the list with no spaces in the name and
• 02:33 then I can always go back and change what the user sees and add that space back in.
• 02:38 So now we have our name, let's click on Create.
• 02:41 Now what you'll see immediately is that it's jumped me to the site contents page
• 02:45 in SharePoint.
• 02:47 And site contents is basically where you can find everything that you've created
• 02:51 within SharePoint.
• 02:52 So, every time you create a list, or a library, or a page,
• 02:55 you're going to be able to find it within site contents.
• 02:59 And this is where my task list is now stored.
• 03:03 And if I scroll down, you can see right at the bottom, there it is, TrainingTasks.
• 03:08 Now one thing you also might notice is that if you're using the classic
• 03:12 experience when you create a new list, you're going to see that automatically in
• 03:17 your quick launch menu on the left hand side.
• 03:20 Whereas if you are using the modern experience,
• 03:22 it doesn't automatically put it in there for you.
• 03:26 Now, I actually do want this TrainingTasks list to be easily accessible from this
• 03:30 quick launch menu.
• 03:31 So how do we move it across?
• 03:34 Well, this is slightly more complicated than it probably needs to be.
• 03:38 But if we hover our mouse over TrainingTasks,
• 03:41 you'll see that we get these three dots.
• 03:44 When we click, it's going to open up a menu of more actions and
• 03:47 we want to jump in to settings.
• 03:49 Now, there's a whole host of different settings on this page, but
• 03:52 the one that we want is the one that's currently highlighted list name,
• 03:56 description, and navigation.
• 03:58 And this is where you can choose if you want to display this particular list or
• 04:01 library, whatever it is that you're creating on that quick launch menu.
• 04:06 So all I need to do here is check the yes radio button and click on Save, and
• 04:11 then just refresh my page.
• 04:13 So to do this, I'm just going to click back on Home.
• 04:16 We can now see is that right at the bottom here we have TrainingTasks.
• 04:20 Now at this stage, I may look at my quick launch menu and think to myself, well,
• 04:25 I don't really want TrainingTasks listed right at the bottom,
• 04:28 I want this to appear with my other lists and libraries.
• 04:31 So if you ever want to reorder items in this quick launch menu,
• 04:34 that's a simple case of clicking the edit button.
• 04:37 And you'll now see that when we're in edit mode,
• 04:40 we get these three dots next to each of these menu items.
• 04:44 So now what I can do is click the three dots and
• 04:47 you can see I have a move up menu item.
• 04:50 So I'm going to move TrainingTasks up one, and then click on Save, and
• 04:55 I've very simply reordered that navigation menu.
• 04:58 Another thing I might want to do as I'm already here is change the way that this
• 05:03 name looks to the user.
• 05:04 If you remember, I didn't put a space in between the words.
• 05:08 So again, if we click the Edit button at the bottom,
• 05:12 and click the three dots, I can choose Edit from the menu.
• 05:17 And this is going to allow me to change the display name in that navigation menu
• 05:21 of this particular task list.
• 05:23 So I'm just going to put a space in there, and click on OK, and then Save.
• 05:28 So now I've created my TrainingTasks list, let's click on it,
• 05:32 which is going to jump us across to our blank task list.
• 05:35 Obviously I need to populate this with lots of different tasks.
• 05:39 Now we're going to do that in the next lesson,
• 05:41 I'm going to show you how to add tasks to your task list.
• 05:44 But a couple of things to point out before we leave this particular lesson,
• 05:48 take a look at our column headings.
• 05:49 These are from the template remember, we have Task Name, Due Date, and Assigned To.
• 05:55 And this page is actually using the classic experience.
• 05:59 And when we use the classic experience,
• 06:01 we have access to ribbons at the top of the screen.
• 06:03 So you'll notice we have BROWSE, TASKS, and LIST.
• 06:08 So if I click LIST, for example, it's going to drop down that ribbon and
• 06:11 I have lots and lots of different options, things I can do with this particular list.
• 06:15 And if you want a quick way of getting back to those list settings you have
• 06:19 a List Settings button in the Settings group right on the end here.
• 06:23 When we click it, this screen is hopefully going to look familiar to everybody
• 06:28 because this is where we came in order to a add task list to the quick launch menu.
• 06:34 And you have three different sections when it comes to your list settings.
• 06:37 We have our General Settings, Permissions and Management, and also Communications.
• 06:43 And we're going to be exploring some of these as we go through the course.
• 06:47 But for now, that is how you create a task list in SharePoint.
• 06:51 In the next lesson, we're going to start to add some tasks.

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