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Practice sorting and filtering lists in SharePoint to arrange data into a more meaningful order making it easier to read and analyze.
Exercise files
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Quick reference
Sorting and Filtering Lists
Manage and organize list items using sorting and filtering.
Lists of information can be sorted in ascending order (A-Z) or descending order (Z-A). We can sort on one or multiple columns.
Filtering is used to extract just the information we are interested in and temporarily hide irrelevant information.
When to use
We sort and filter lists whenever we want to organize information in a more meaningful way making it easier to read and analyze.
Instructions
Sorting Items in a List
Lists can be sorted quickly using the drop-down arrow in the column header. Which column header we choose depends on which column we want to sort by.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Last Name.
- Select A-Z to sort the list in ascending order or Z-A to sort the list in descending order.
Filtering Items in a List (one column)
Filtering helps us focus on only the items in the list that are of interest. For example, maybe we are only interested in viewing contacts that are at a specific company.
- Click the drop-down next to the column heading Company.
- Select Filter By from the menu.
- Select the company or companies that we are interested in.
- Click Apply.
Filtering Items in a List (multiple columns)
We can apply filters to more than one column. Instead of selecting to filter by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the column, we can use the universal filter instead.
- In the right-hand corner, click the Filter icon.
- Select all of the criteria to filter by.
- Click Apply.
- Click the Clear Filter icon to reset the filters.
Sorting and Filtering Calendar Items
As a calendar is just a list in SharePoint, it is possible to sort and filter calendar items.
- Go to the event calendar.
- From the Calendar ribbon, in the Manage View group, change the view to All Events.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to the column heading to sort by and select A-Z or Z-A.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to the column heading to filter by and select the relevant filter criteria.
Hints & tips
- We know which columns have sorting applied as a small arrow will show in the column heading.
- We know which columns have filtering applied as a small funnel icon will show in the column heading.
- 00:04 As we've already seen, there are lots of things that we can do with lists.
- 00:08 And if you have a list that has many items, you might want to be able to
- 00:13 manage that list a little bit better by using sorting and
- 00:17 filtering to really hone in on specific list items.
- 00:20 And that's what we're going to look at in this lesson.
- 00:23 So for this example, I'm going to use my training contacts list.
- 00:28 And this isn't a particularly long list at this stage, but
- 00:31 the techniques that I'm going to use work on lists of any length.
- 00:35 So let's talk about sorting first of all.
- 00:38 To make this list a little bit more organized, I could choose to sort it maybe
- 00:43 A to Z or Z to A, and I can sort by any of the columns that I have in this list.
- 00:49 So for example, if I wanted to sort this list by the person's last name,
- 00:53 all I need to do is click the little drop down arrow next to the last name column.
- 00:59 And there I have my sorting options, A to Z, or Z to A.
- 01:04 So let's say Z to A to put this list into reverse and it reorganizes the list.
- 01:10 I can click the drop down again, A to Z, and I can see that I have a sort
- 01:15 applied because I have this little up arrow icon next to last name.
- 01:20 So that is extremely simple to do.
- 01:23 But what about filtering?
- 01:24 Maybe out of all of the contacts that I have,
- 01:27 I'm only particularly interested in contacts at a specific company.
- 01:32 So let's say Freeman Partners.
- 01:35 Well, I can filter my list of contacts just to show those contacts who work
- 01:39 at that organization.
- 01:41 And again, this is extremely simple.
- 01:44 All I need to do here, is go to the column heading that I want to apply the filter
- 01:48 to, in this case the company.
- 01:49 Let's click that drop down, and I have a filter by option.
- 01:54 This is going to open a little pane on the right hand side and
- 01:57 it's going to pick up all of the items contained within that column,
- 02:00 so in this case all of the organizations.
- 02:02 And if I just want to see contacts that are at Freeman Partners,
- 02:06 all I need to do is put a check in the checkbox and say apply.
- 02:11 The list will refresh and update and only show me those contacts.
- 02:15 And once again, you can tell if you have a filter applied to a column,
- 02:19 because you're going to have this little filter icon next to that column heading.
- 02:22 Now you might be thinking to yourself, well,
- 02:25 what if I want to filter by multiple columns, how can I do that?
- 02:30 Well, this is a simple case of going up to the right hand corner and
- 02:33 again, we have a filter icon just here.
- 02:36 But this is more of a universal filters pane.
- 02:39 It allows you to filter on any of the columns rather than just one specific
- 02:44 column.
- 02:45 So I can now go in and add in more criteria from the different columns.
- 02:50 So maybe I'm only interested in people with the last name of Moore.
- 02:56 Once again, it's going to update that list and apply that filter.
- 03:00 If I want to clear all of my filters, I have a clear filters button in the top
- 03:04 right hand corner of this pane that's going to clear out everything and
- 03:08 it's going to take my list back to how it was originally.
- 03:11 So very simple to sort, filter, and also apply multiple filters to a list.
- 03:19 Let's look at a slightly different type of list now.
- 03:21 Let's go back into our calendar.
- 03:23 Because remember, and I keep saying this over and over again so
- 03:27 that you don't forget, the calendar is simply just a list.
- 03:31 Now, I'm going to go back to June where I have a few more items.
- 03:34 Now, is it possible to sort and filter a calendar?
- 03:40 Well, if you said yes, then you would be absolutely correct.
- 03:44 We just have to go about this in a slightly different way.
- 03:47 Because in this calendar format, we don't really have anything that we can click or
- 03:52 apply that is going to allow us to sort these items or filter them.
- 03:56 And to be honest if we did our calendar would look a little bit strange.
- 04:00 So to do this we need to utilize our ribbons.
- 04:02 Remember you get ribbons when you're in classic view.
- 04:05 So let's jump up to the calendar tab so that we get that ribbon drop down.
- 04:10 And what we want to do here is in this manage views group in the middle,
- 04:15 you can see here my current view is showing calendar.
- 04:19 But what I can do is I can change the way that I'm viewing my calendar and
- 04:23 what I'm going to do is change this to all events.
- 04:27 And this is going to list out everything that I have in my calendar as
- 04:31 a standard list.
- 04:32 And then from here I have similar options.
- 04:35 Now remember this looks slightly different because I'm in classic view.
- 04:39 But maybe I'm only interested in seeing all of the meetings that are online.
- 04:43 I could go to the location, click the drop down.
- 04:46 I have my sort options at the top here, A to Z or Z to A.
- 04:50 And I also have my filters here as well.
- 04:53 So I could say online, close.
- 04:55 And it's going to show me just those calendar items where
- 04:58 the meeting is taking place online.
- 05:00 I have my filter icon at the top of the column to show that
- 05:03 I have a filter applied.
- 05:05 And if I want to clear it, I can say clear filters from location.
- 05:09 And it's pretty much as simple as that.
- 05:12 So once I've sorted and maybe filtered this list, if I want to switch back to
- 05:16 the calendar format view, all I need to do is jump back up to my ribbons, go to list.
- 05:21 And again, in manage views, I'm going to change this from all events and
- 05:25 we're going to change this back to calendar.
- 05:28 And there we go, there are my meetings.
- 05:31 So very straightforward to sort and filter lists in SharePoint.
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