SharePoint Online Intermediate

welcome to SharePoint Online in user intermediate in this training we do a deep dive into managing content in SharePoint Online you'll learn how the ins and outs of using lists libraries and file management if you wish to further your training we offer live public classes or we can bring the training to you with a private class visit learning comm for more details remember to like and subscribe and let us know your thoughts in the comments welcome back in this module we're going to talk about using information in lists now if you'll remember lists are one of the six core components of SharePoint but they're one of only two components that actually hold data so lists are actually really important in this lesson we're gonna first define a list so that you know what it is that we're talking about when we say lists we'll talk about some common list types we'll talk about how to manage lists information and demonstrate exactly how to do just that and finally we'll talk about some content management tools that are available within lists and how to work within them so a lot of really cool stuff to talk about with regards to lists in this module let's go ahead and get started so what is a list well it is without a doubt one of the most important and pervasive elements in a site remember it's only one of two components that actually holds data here in SharePoint it's generally flattened structure so it's fields are organized into columns with column headers and records are organized into rows if that structure sounds familiar it's because it looks a lot like an Excel spreadsheet when it's in its native View there are plenty different types of Lists think about all the types of Lists that interact in your world now you're not necessarily work-related but just lists in general what lists can you think of how about a task list or to-do list how about a contact lists many of us don't memorize phone numbers anymore we have smartphones that do it for us so we have a list of contacts that we pull from an events list also known as a calendar after all what is a calendar if not a list of upcoming events organized into a grid based structure there are plenty of other styles of Lists as well including purchase orders product inventory even the upcoming menu in the company cafeteria all of these are types of lists it's important to note that lists won't always look like you have in your head with an Excel spreadsheet structure as we've seen they can look like calendars they can look like a ton of different things the most important thing to remember about lists is less what they look like and more how they receive their data if you'll remember lists receive their data directly from you so it's generally information that is being typed or inserted directly into SharePoint so it's not based on a file it's all about the data in this next part of the lesson we're going to talk about managing lists information and we'll demonstrate how to manage lists as well we'll talk about creating viewing and editing lists items will also talk about deleting and restoring list items once they've been deleted and finally we'll talk about ribbon controls in the more traditional styles of list apps we'll also talk about the new modern list design and where the new controls can be found so let's go ahead and get started to create a new item in a list first things first you've got to be in a list keep in mind you can get into lists in any number of different ways but if you forget how you can always go to the gear in the top right corner and find your existing lists in site contents in this example I'm inside a task list now there are a couple of different ways to identify that you're in a list if you're in a traditional styled list or legacy list you'll notice up at the top portion of the screen the ribbon tab tools that are being made available to us one of them says the word list in this example what I'd like to do is add a new task to this task list now I can either click the new task button or I can go to the task ribbon tab and click new item either one of these will work keep in mind this is the same button in two different places so if I were to click on new item here in the ribbon you'll notice that it allows me to populate the task name start and due date even say who it's assigned to and likewise if I had gone ahead and clicked on new task you'll see it gives me the exact same field now take stock of how we're giving this information to SharePoint are we uploading a file or are we typing the data in directly in this case because the central data point of which we are adding this item to is textual they were giving it directly to SharePoint it's going into a list now if we had uploaded a central file and that was the primary data point that would have been within a library now don't with the fact that you can attach a file to a list item confusing from the fact that this is in fact a list attaching the file this is not the central data point this isn't what drives each new record in this list it's what I type into this box that is driving the information in the app therefore this is a list so I'll go ahead and say for the sake of argument this task is going to be evaluate successes and challenges so we'll go ahead and say that this is a meeting that we're gonna schedule for February 9th will also make it do that day as well so again take stock of how we're giving this information to a list I can even go so far as to assign this task to somebody let's say I'm going to go ahead and assign it to my second-in-command lto 9 now keep in mind I can also click show more depending on the app you're adding more information into there might be more or less information that you can put in I'll go ahead and leave these blank and click Save and just like that there it is so I've now put evaluate successes and challenges due February 9th and I've added it to this list so to recap we added a new task or a new item to this list either by clicking the new item button at the top of this list here in the main screen or by going to the top tasks tab and clicking new item the process would have been the same in any other style of list you just wouldn't see the tasks tab it would say items go ahead and take this opportunity to pause the video and try that for yourself add a new item to a list to edit an existing item in a list first things first you've got to of course be in the list and identify the item you'd like to edit so in this instance I'd like to edit the item that says call a meeting with a steering committee it's currently assigned to LT zero - I need to sign it - LT zero four and likewise we can't do this today so we're gonna bump it to tomorrow either way we need to make changes to this there are a million different ways that you can edit something here in SharePoint well not a million but you get the idea there's lots of different ways to do the exact same thing the first way is as you might have noticed I just clicked on the actual item here in this list that says call a meeting with the steering committee by clicking on the actual item what it does is it takes you to a dedicated page that shows you all the available information in this list it's here that you'll notice in the ribbon I actually have the option to edit the item this item so that's one way another way would be to click on the button that says edit this list up at the top portion of the screen if you do choose to click Edit this list also known as quick edit which can be found here in the list tab underneath quick edit same button what this will do is it'll destabilize the page so that I can edit not just this particular item but you'll notice that now all of the items that were available in this list now look like clickable cells I can now edit every single item in this list at least the visible fields for each item in this list you'll notice for example start date isn't listed here and therefore using quick edit I can't edit start date now keep in mind that if you are going to edit using quick edit you've got to remember to click stop editing this list when you're done if you don't do this your changes will not save it's a very common mistake that people make not to click stop editing this list when they're done using quick edit the third way to edit this item would be to select the item using the check mark on the left hand side now if you take a look at the ribbon tabs that are available here either the tasks tab or the lists tab each of them contains specific tools the tasks tab or items tab contains tools that allow us to manage specific tasks individual items you'll notice that if I didn't have an item selected tools like view item edit delete insert move up or down are all grayed out we have a saying it learn it and that is you must select to effect so in order to have access to items specific tools here in the tasks tab you must select an item or task to edit and sure enough you'll notice the option to edit item here that's three ways the fourth and final way to edit an item is to click on the ellipses the dot-dot-dot to the right of any individualized item at which point you'll click on the second layer of ellipses and choose edit item you can get this same pop-up by right-clicking as well and you'll notice that edit item appears directly so there's a ton of different ways to get to this all of them however once selected take you to the same view this one so I'll go ahead and update the start and due date to February 1st and I'm going to change who it's assigned to to lt0 for and finally I'll click save either here or here and just like that I've edited the item so to recap there are a ton of different ways to edit an item you can right-click on it and choose edit click on the ellipses and then the second ellipses and click Edit select the item using the check mark on the left hand side going to the tasks tab and clicking edit item or finally actually clicking on the item and selecting edit item up in the top left-hand corner all of those will allow you to edit an existing list item go ahead and pause the video and try editing an item in a list for yourself so at this stage we've talked about how to create view more details on and edit existing list items what we'd like to do now is we've decided we don't actually need to evaluate successes and challenges now we could mark it as complete and just ignore it but in this instance what we'd like to do is ideally just not have it on the list at all so to delete an item that already exists on a list there are a couple of different options at your disposal the first is in the tasks tab you'll notice that we have delete item listed here however you'll also notice that deleted item is grayed out remember you must select to effect so I'm gonna go ahead and take my cursor and select that item and you'll notice that the entire tasks tab lights up where I can delete the item here you can also delete the item by using the ellipses on the right-hand side and clicking on that second ellipses to delete the item as well and finally remember even though this is the web you can right-click on items and get that second layer of ellipses in one click and now I can go ahead and click delete item no matter how you delete the item the process is the same it'll give you a pop-up that says hey we're gonna send this to the recycle bin it also means that if there are any other items that are related to this they will also go to the recycle bin so I'll go ahead and say sure why not just like when you delete something on your computer it goes to a central recycle bin repository where it can be retrieved up to ninety days later by default now keep in mind your organization can customize that so you'll want to check with your site administrator to make sure that it is ninety days for your organization as well go ahead and pause the video and delete your own item as well now of course keep in mind we highly recommend deleting something that you don't actually need we'll see after the break welcome back now we've deleted an item it might be in our best interest to learn how to retrieve items we didn't mean to delete so of course we'll need to go to where that item went when we deleted it do you remember where it went if you're guessing the recycle bin you guessed right to go to the recycle bin remember you have two different options at your disposal you'll either find it in your quick launch here on the far left-hand side or you're gonna find it in the gear up at the top-right corner with inside site contents remember site contents is the absolute guaranteed location where you can go to find information on all data and structure in a particular site so I'll go ahead and click on site contents and sure enough there's the recycle bin now it's important to note the recycle bin only shows you files that you have deleted if someone else has deleted this item they're gonna have to go into their recycle bin keep in mind that even site owners can't go into other users recycle bins to retrieve content that's something that only a site collection administrator has the authority to do so in the event that somebody does delete something and no one knows who you'll need to contact a site collection administrator to go into their site collection recycle bin in order to retrieve that particular item so I'm gonna go ahead and click on recycle bin here in the top right corner and it'll take me into my recycle bin in this instance you'll notice again I'm only seeing items that I've deleted and sure enough there's the list item that I deleted just a little bit ago the item in the list evaluate successes and challenges and I can even see here it was listed in the project tasks list so I'll go ahead and so like that item to restore it you'll notice that when I do select it the button that previously said empty recycle bin now says deletes restore these are contextual tools so you'll notice when nothing is selected I get an option that allows me to manage the entire recycle bin but when I select a specific item I get item tools that are specific to just that selected object if I click delete that item will be deleted completely if I click restore it reverts it back to its previous instance so I'll go ahead and click restore and just like that it's been restored back to that tasks list now what if I had deleted it what if I've emptied the recycle bin well you might think well I must be out of luck right not entirely you see if you scroll down to the very bottom of your recycle bin you'll also notice that there's an option for something called the second-stage recycle bin the second-stage recycle bin will allow you to retrieve content that you may have accidentally deleted from your recycle bin so it's your second chance to retrieve deleted content if you're foolish enough to empty your recycle bin the first time now if you go into your recycle bin and then delete it from there well you get no sympathy from me you've done this to yourself to close things off I'm going to go ahead and jump back in to site contents and I'm going to find my central tasks list and sure evaluate successes and challenges is now back in this list so to recap we deleted an item went to the recycle bin selected the item and restored it and it brought it right back to its original location go ahead and pause the video and restore an item from your recycle bin we'll see after the break it's time to talk content management we've already talked about creating viewing and editing list items we've also talked about the ability to delete and restore list items all the while we've talked about the ability to utilize the existing ribbon controls what we'd like to do now is talk about some content management tools that are available to be implemented by site owners and administrators in this lesson we're going to talk about content approval we're also going to talk about the ability to access past versions of an item in a list and finally we'll talk about accessing and creating new views for lists so a lot of really cool stuff to talk about here we're still talking about lists but keep in mind that some of these tools may or may not be utilized in your particular organization's lists let's go ahead and get started in this lesson we're gonna talk about content approval and what it is and how to work with it so right out of the gate I'd like to point out we're in a different list than we were in a previous lesson we're now in something called a discussion board now remember there's only two components and all of SharePoint that actually hold data lists which hold data directly and libraries which hold files that hold data now we are in a list and there's a couple of different ways to identify that just as a reminder if there is a ribbon you might see it notified as a list tab indicating that we're in a list because it provides list management tools now this is not a guaranteed way the easiest way to identify whether or not something is a list or a library is to attempt to add a new item so I'll go ahead and either click new discussion or if you'll remember from previous lessons I can go to the items tab and I can click on new item here if I should so choose multiple ways to do the exact same thing so I'm going to go ahead and click on new discussion now of course because this is a different list than the one I was working in previously the questions are a little bit different the types of information this list is trying to collect are a little different that said there's also something else a little different that you'll see at the top portion of the screen here at a yellow bar it says items on this list require content approval your submission will not appear in public views until approved by someone with proper rights this particular list has a tool called content approval turned on it's the ability for site owners to designate specific people to approve content and until that content is approved it's not visible to the public or at least to those individuals who would normally have access to this library or to this list so I'm gonna go ahead and type a new subject discussion boards can be used for a lot of different cool things in this example we'll use the discussion board to highlight that I'm having a particular challenge how do I submit the weekly report I can't remember we're to go I'll go ahead and mark this as a question and click Save now at first glance it might look like I've posted it but as we'll see in just a moment here I'm gonna go ahead and pull up the view of another user and we'll see sure enough that no one can actually see this just yet because it's still pending so here I am logged in as another user this time LT 0 4 as opposed to LT 0 2 just a moment ago you'll see I'm in the exact same discussion board but I don't see anything why because that item that I just posted is still pending when an item is still pending the only people who can see pending items for approval are the author the person who actually wrote the item or submitted the item and those who have the ability to approve content so in the previous example just a moment ago I can see it but that's because I wrote it so let's go ahead and say for the sake of argument that someone approves it to approve an item if you do have permission to approve content you have a couple of different options at your disposal but what you can easily do is in this instance what I'll do is I will select the item so we're going to go ahead and approve this item so what I'm going to do is I'm going to jump up to the list tab and I'm going to change this view to the moderated approve reject items view so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go change my view and approve this item I'll go ahead and jump into the management view I'll go ahead and click on the ellipses and what I'd like to do is approve this item so I'll go ahead and hover over advanced and sure enough there's a proof reject now you can also select the item using the check mark on the left hand side and go to the items tab and you'll see the option to approve reject here as well keep in mind that if you don't have approval permissions you're not going to be able to choose this someone with the appropriate approval permission we'll have to do this for you so I'll go ahead and approve this item and click OK now all told I haven't changed this item at all all I've done is I've simply approved it so let's come back to our LT 0 4 account for just a moment here and I'm gonna go ahead and refresh the screen now that that item has been approved you'll notice suddenly it's visible it was only once the item was approved that it became publicly accessible by anyone who had access to this list so go ahead and pause the video try this for yourself find in a list that has content approval term done and submit an item take stock that you'll need somebody who isn't you in order to see that your item isn't publicly visible until it's been approved go ahead and try that for yourself and we'll see you after the break the next content management tool we're going to talk about here is version control or version history the ability to track past versions of an item in a list is a key hallmark feature of SharePoint the ability to say okay if someone does make a change hold on to whatever it used to be in case we don't like that change or if we need to view past records to see how we got to where we are today so here I am in another list now this is the third type of list that we've seen this one is a simple list now you might notice some key differences between this style of list and other styles of Lists that we've talked about in previous lessons one of the biggest distinctions you're going to notice is that this one doesn't have a ribbon there's no items tab or list tab this is the new modern design that eventually all lists will have the ribbon is on borrowed time the ribbon will not always be available inside of SharePoint so it's critical that we take a quick look very briefly at this new interface so in this instance again you'll notice that I don't see my items or list tube instead I have a collection of tools that I can find at the top portion of this list including simple options like add a new item quick edit export to excel manage with flow a tool we'll talk about in later videos and even the ability to access power apps alert me or manage existing alerts so here in this new modern list it's really stripped down we're not seeing all the options all at once anymore instead Microsoft is providing a curated short list of just the tools that it thinks we needs so let me go ahead take a look at submit a question to the management team you'll notice that when I select the item using the check mark on the left the tools that are available up at the top have shifted to include edit share get a link delete and if I click on the ellipses more options including version history alert and manage my alerts these are the same options however that we would have seen if we had clicked on the ellipses to the right of that item is open edit share get a link you'll also notice some more contextual and advanced options that weren't available for example you'll notice that I have access to details you'll also notice I have access to copy field to clipboard so these are options that we're seeing in the ellipses but not up at the top portion of the screen keep in mind that that ellipses menu that we just saw is the same menu that we would have seen if we had right clicked on this item as well so keep in mind that right click is a contextually powerful tool no matter whether you're in the modern or classic list interface so we've already seen the option to view version history in a couple of different areas in this case I'll go ahead and choose version history from the top bar sure enough you'll see here it is the original entry was shouting into the abyss someone updated it to submit a question to the management team and of course in both instances you'll see that it was me LT 0 2 that made those changes but version history is incredibly useful and that it helps us to identify not just what changes were made and when they were made but who made them so let's say for the sake of argument I want to revert it back to shouting into the abyss to view more information about this item you can click directly on the timestamp that's a link so if I click on that it'll take me into a full page that is just that item so I can review it but if I know that this is the one I want to revert back to simply click the drop down arrow to the right of that timestamp and click restore and I'll click OK now before I click OK what do you think is going to happen to version 1.0 in relation to 2.0 is it just gonna switch the order is it going to remove 2.0 and replace it with version 1.0 or is it going to do something different let's go ahead and click OK and find out if you guessed it's gonna duplicate version 1.0 and make it version 3.0 you would be correct you see it's not going to remove past versions even if it's not a version that we wanted made in the first place it's important that it tracks all past versions for the sake of maintaining an absolute archive of this item in its history so to recap to revert back to past versions of an item simply find the item either by selecting it using the check mark clicking on the ellipses or right-clicking on it go to version history find the item you'd like to revert back to hover over the time stamp and click the drop down arrow to the right and click restore and confirm and just like that you've used version history to manage your list and you've gotten a quick tour of the new modern list interface here in SharePoint go ahead and pause the video and try out version history for yourself we'll talk about with regards to lists is the ability to customize your view now we've seen now that there are two different ways that lists can be laid out we have the classic interface that has the ribbon tabs up at the top and we had the new modern interface which does not have ribbons and instead has contextual tools that lie in the top portion of the screen so we'll be talking about how to create views for both of them in two separate videos first let's talk about creating views here in the classic interface down towards the underneath portion underneath new tasks or edit this list you'll notice I've got all tasks calendar completed these are views and they're not all the views if I click on the ellipses to the right here it'll in fact reveal even more views like Gantt or late or my tasks for that matter but you'll also notice I have the option to modify this current view or create an entirely new one now unless you're a site owner or someone that has edit capabilities for an entire site you're probably not going to be able to modify any of these public views meaning views that are accessible by all users so instead you'll be limited to just create view which you can click here or from the list tab up at the top portion of the screen and sure enough we'll see the option to modify and create views now bear in mind even if you are a site owner or site administrator I highly recommend avoiding modifying existing views until you get some working experience with this modifying views doesn't just modify it for you it modifies it for all users that have access to this list so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and click create view now when you first click create view it'll ask you what type standard calendar datasheet Gantt it'll even give you the option to create a custom view using SharePoint designer we're not going to get into SharePoint designer at any point throughout these videos you'll have to check out our SharePoint 103 to get a brief taste of SharePoint designer most views are based foundationally in the standard view although it's important to note you're not limited to the standard view regardless of which view type if you have an existing view that is almost perfect meaning that a view that you've got that is already available is like oh it would be perfect if I could make one little change you can use that view as a starting point a template for your new view in this example I'm going to create a standard view I'll go ahead and give it a name and I'm going to call this the LT 0 for task view so you can guess I'm probably gonna create a view that shows me just tasks assigned to LT 0 for now if you're a site owner you'll also have the option to make this the default view once again I'd like to remind you that you're not just changing the default view for you you're changing it for all users view audience if you're not a site owner or administrator you're not going to be able to create a public view a view that's available to be used by anyone who accesses this list instead you'll be limited to just creating a personal view a personal view is only a view that exists for you now keep in mind that even site owners and administrators will create their own personal views based on their specific job role so keep in mind that you're not limited to just one or the other you can use a mix of both if you have access to both personal views are generally for those views that only you would find valuable and public views would be for those who did find value or could find value in those styles of view I scroll down a little bit here to the columns section you'll notice that there's a ton of column names or metadata the check marks indicate what is and is not visible so we'll say for the sake of argument I don't care when it's due I don't care about any of this other information I care about whether it's completed what the name of the task is who it's assigned to and for the sake of argument let's say that I also care about what version number it's currently on now in order to order it you'll use the dropdowns here on the right-hand side so you might say for example that you want assigned to to be the last field visible so where it says version all I'm going to do is make sure that versions number is less than assigned to so I'll go ahead and click on version and I'm going to mark it to 3 and you'll see now it is definitely coming before assigned to so I'll go ahead and scroll down a little bit just as a quick side note you're not limited to any number of different fields of metadata to make visible but keep in mind that you want to make sure that this information is readable from here you get to designate the sort so I'll go ahead and say sort by here we go due date so even though due date isn't a field that's going to be visible I can still sort by it and I'll go ahead and sort in ascending order keep in mind that I could sort by other fields if I wanted to much in the same way that you would search by Flast name instead of first name next I have the option to filter now keep in mind you do not have to filter in fact most views don't filter but if you were to filter all you'd have to do is say instead of show all items in this view which is the default I want to show items only when the following is true show items when column assigned to is equal to Lt 0 4 or I could even go so far as to add an or or an and where in the event that it doesn't say LT 0 for in the assigned to if it's a contains LT 0 4 in the name then lists that as well I won't go so far but nonetheless keep in mind that you do have access to this as well now when creating your view there are a ton of options at your disposal but we're not going to drill into here but nonetheless I highly encourage you to check out some of these additional options when creating a view in this instance however I've named it I've decided that it will be a personal view meaning for me only I've chosen the metadata that I'd like to reveal and set it in the appropriate order I've sorted it I've filtered it and finally I'm going to click OK and there you go I'm now instantly dropped into the lt0 for task view now of course I can go back to all tasks and it will reveal everything that's in this list but if I only need to see what's inside the task view there it is so now I'm only seeing tasks assigned to lt0 for so to recap to create a new view either click on the ellipses to the right of all the other views and click create or go to the list tab and select create view from there name it designate which fields you'd like to be visible sort it if you do choose to filter it filter it and then submit go ahead and pause the video and create your own personal view a reminder personal views are for views that only you would find valuable public views are useful for those that will have access to it outside of just yourself we'll see after the break to create a view in the new modern list interface here in SharePoint Online the process is going to look a little bit different for example you'll notice that we no longer have the ribbon where we would go to choose create view and likewise we don't see any option to click an ellipses and select modify or create view instead all of our options for views are here on the right-hand side so first things first I'm gonna go ahead and click on the all items drop down you'll see I don't see create view or even modify view I do see however edit current view so I'll go ahead and do that does this interface look familiar it should this is the same interface that we just saw when we were creating our custom view in the classic list interface so once again I can go ahead and say all right well I've want to see who created this and what version it is but I want version to come right after the title followed by created by I might even like to see when it was last modified I'll go ahead and sort based on not ID but let's go ahead and do it alphabetically based on title this time I won't choose to filter it although we've seen that you could and once again we have these additional fields feel free to explore them but what we're going to do is click OK so what I've done in this particular instance is I've chosen to modify the view so I actually did edit the public facing view bear in mind that if you're not a site administrator you might not have had that option so I want to make sure that I point out beyond that that what you can do is you can actually sort filter and group and then choose to save that view as a personal view so the same option that we had to create existing views for our just ourselves is available it's just not as readily obvious now beyond that let's say that I'd like to create a new view not just edit an existing one using the plus sign here on the far right-hand side I'm gonna go ahead and choose show/hide columns so let's say I'd like to show a view that is just the title and who created it so I've gone ahead and deselected all those different items except for the fields that I wanted to see and I'll click apply now that I've done that I'd also like to go so far as to filter let's say tough choices here I'll go ahead and filter to say I just want to see items that say one particular entry you'll notice that has a little asterisk by it this indicates that I've edited the current view so if I like this view and I want to hold on to it but I don't want to replace the all items view I'll simply click save view and I'll call this the sop view keep in mind that if you're not a Sai admin you will not have access to this checkmark but if you do have access to it checking it makes it a public view unchecking it leaves it as a personal or private view and I'll go ahead and click Save and finally I'll click the drop down and sure enough you'll notice I now have the all items view and the SOP view and if I should so choose if I'm a site owner or a site admin I can even set this current view as the default so to recap two different interfaces for lists now the classic interface that has the tabs the modern interface that does not in the grand scheme of things the processes are the same they just have slightly different looks and feels go ahead and pause the video and try creating your own view in a modern list as a quick reminder you can customize which columns are visible and which are not by clicking on the plus icon and selecting show/hide columns once you've chosen the metadata you'd like to appear click apply and finally once you've customized sorted and filtered to your exact specifications remember to save the view and designate either public view or personal go ahead and try that for yourself and we'll see you after the break we're going to talk about using documents and libraries so in this particular section we're gonna define a library for you in our previous module we talked about what lists were one of the two core components that store data in SharePoint we're finally going to talk about the second core component from there we'll talk about some common library types that are available in SharePoint we'll talk about how to manage library documents and finally we'll talk about content management tools and how they interact with files that we're working with in a library so let's get started defining a library so libraries are a key repository where we store and manage office documents and other files it's important to note that libraries can hold any type of file they're not limited to just office documents they can hold pictures music video files PDFs keep in mind that additional metadata can also be stored in relationship to the files metadata is simply data about data anything that gives us more information about a file can be considered metadata the name of a file how big it is who uploaded it when was it uploaded who created it these are all metadata fields and we can create even more metadata fields in order to add even more context to why that file matters it also provides powerful collaboration tools and document management tools to help us facilitate and manage day-to-day operations with regards to these files so the technical stuff that can be done with files but the key thing to centralize on is that it has a clear file based focus there are a ton of different types of libraries bear in mind that libraries are not nearly as pervasive as lists but nonetheless they definitely do still play a substantive role in how we use SharePoint so let's take the easy one off the table document libraries keep in mind that a document library isn't restricting you to Word documents or any sort of textual based document in SharePoint document simply means file so it can hold any type of file that's allowed by your system admin so that can be pictures PowerPoint slideshows music mp3s mp4s PDFs txt you get the idea how about a picture library so let's say for the sake of argument we have a company picnic and we want to create a centralized repository where everybody can upload their photos that they took at the company picnic a picture library is generally restricted to just pictures but it's also designed in such a way that it presents pictures in a way that's far more appropriate for that style a file a side assets library every site has a site assets library which is designed to hold images and multimedia that we present on the site so for site admins in site owners this is the library that you'll use to upload graphics that you'll display elsewhere on the site it's also where you'll go to upload the latest promotional video so instead of referencing it from another site and not having total control over it we can upload it to our own SharePoint site and host it there using the site assets library even a slide library allows you to store slides that can be inserted directly into PowerPoint presentations so let's say this PowerPoint for example that I'm giving in today's class I could easily upload this PowerPoint into a SharePoint library and have it set up so that if you should so choose you could actually selectively decide which of these slides you'd like to download as opposed to downloading the entire file and then deleting the ones you don't want these are just some types of libraries and they're by no stretch of the imagination the only types of libraries but if there's anything that unifies the concept of libraries it's that it is file based it's not about text it's about the files themselves they can contain whatever data we need them to but they are contained in some way shape or form in this section we're gonna talk about managing document libraries we'll talk about creating and uploading Office documents and other files we'll talk about deleting and restoring those files we'll talk about managing those documents metadata and how we can create new metadata if we should so choose if we should so choose we'll talk about changing libraries views and creating our own we'll discuss checking in and checking out a document and the merits of why each matters we'll talk about man document versions and finally we'll talk about using folders and why they can be useful and for those of you that don't like folders how we can still work with them without having to see them so let's go ahead and get started welcome back so it's time to start talking about working with files documents here in SharePoint it's often considered that working with files and uploading documents is one of the primary focuses of SharePoint but as we've seen in past lessons here lists do have a pervasive element to them documents may be the more obvious use case of SharePoint but they are by no means the only use case nonetheless they play an important role so it's important that we know how to work with them so here we are now in this stage here I'm currently inside of a library to upload a document that already exists to a library you have a couple of options at your disposal the first is to find the upload button at the top portion of the screen and give it a click you'll notice that you'll have the option to upload an entire folder of files or if it's just one or two files then you'll be able to choose from files as well now when you do choose files of course it gives you this little pop-up and allows you to search for the files that you need to upload in this case I'd like to go ahead and upload this excel spreadsheet although it's important to note that if you hold the ctrl key or the shift key you can select as many of these files at an instance as you'd like in this case I'll go ahead and choose just the one and click open and just like that the files been uploaded so with the file uploaded here it's important to note that it is now instantly accessible to anybody who wants access to this particular library now that said that's not the only way that we can upload an existing file you also have the option in this case here I'll go ahead and find another file well go ahead and rename this here so let's say in this instance I have a PowerPoint that I'd like to upload to this library simply find it on your computer and click and drag somewhere into the web browser you'll notice that as you drag it from your File Explorer view into the the words drag the items to any location appears at the top now you can either drop it directly into a folder you'll notice that as I hover over the folder it actually highlights but if I drop it anywhere else it'll simply upload in this case I'll go ahead and drop it anywhere except the folder once again you'll notice that it's uploading and there it is so the file was easily uploaded now in the event that I did intend to upload it into that folder I can easily drag and drop it into that folder at a moment's notice so by no stretch the imagination am i limited to just that particular action once it's uploaded I still have a lot of flexibility go ahead and pause the video and upload your own file into a library doesn't have to be any special file and it doesn't have to be an office document either keep in mind that you can upload any style of file pictures music videos PDFs it doesn't have to be Office documents go ahead and give that a shot and we'll see after the break welcome back so at this stage here we've seen how easy it is to upload existing files into a SharePoint library we could have either used the upload button here at the top portion of the screen we could have also just dragged and dropped pretty much anywhere here in this library but what if I want to create a file that doesn't already exist well I can do that in this instance maybe I'd like to create a word document that I can then collaborate on with my other team members to create a new file first things first you'll need to be in a library from here I'll go ahead and click on new up at the top portion of the screen you'll notice it's here I can create a new folder a new word document Excel spreadsheet PowerPoint OneNote I can even create a hyperlink that exists as a file a shortcut to another site whether it's inside of SharePoint or out on the greater web in this example I'll go ahead and create a new word document so there you go just like that I've created a new word document and it's dropped me right into a blank Word document now of course if you take a really good look we're not actually in Microsoft Word take a look up at the top portion of the screen that's a URL we're still inside a web browser we're currently using a tool called word online so think of this as Microsoft's very own Google Docs Microsoft has their own web-based versions of Microsoft Word Excel PowerPoint even OneNote so you can actually create Word documents manage spreadsheets and even facilitate PowerPoint presentations in the web even on computers that don't have Microsoft Office installed on them now I'm by no means limited to Word online I can choose to edit in the desktop version of word whenever I want but in this instance I'll go ahead and use Word online I'll give this an important collaborative title and I'll go ahead and generate a little bit of gibberish text anybody speak Latin no what are they teaching in schools these days now of course I never titled this document but I can always rename it whenever I want by clicking on the word document if you've never used word online or Excel or PowerPoint online give it a shot it's pretty cool and for the most part pretty full-featured as well so I'll go ahead and call this one post meeting follow-up while you might have noticed that there's an undo and redo button one button that you're sure not to see is a Save button there doesn't seem to be a Save button anywhere see my thing how well it's in the file tab I see safe as I don't see save and in fact if I click on save as you'll notice it even says yourself where's the Save button so there is no Save button why because every change you make is being saved automatically pretty cool so every single time I make a change here like for example highlighting a Grapher - and giving it a little bit of pizzazz is being saved instantly now of course I can also share it with other people as I go throughout this year there's a ton of tools that are available here right out of the gate now if you don't know where particular tools are you also have access to the tell me bar so let's say for example I want to insert a picture there it is insert picture I can upload an existing picture if I should so choose I could have also inserted a picture from online utilizing Bing images in this case I'll go ahead and keep it as is and I'd like to go back to my library to get back to your library you'll utilize the name of your site up in the top left-hand corner if you're in word online Excel online or PowerPoint online to get back to the library you came from when editing or creating a file click on the name of the site for the love of everything do not use the back button SharePoint as you will quickly find out does not love the back button so it's important to know where to go where to click in these regards so I'll go ahead and click on project central and sure enough I am back inside my project library and there is the post meeting follow-up document that I just created go ahead and pause the video and create your own new file here inside of SharePoint Online to recap simply click the new drop-down choose the type of file and go at it we'll see you back after the break creating files and uploading files in SharePoint are critical tools in our arsenal of working inside SharePoint but it's also important to note once the file is in SharePoint whether you uploaded it or not how do you work with that file how do you edit it for example well that's where I come in once again to edit a file that's already been uploaded into SharePoint there's a couple of things you'll need to keep in mind but the first is simply find the file you'd like to edit so let's say for the sake of argument here I'd like to go ahead and edit the fiscal year 2016 results there's a couple of different ways to edit this file if you haven't already figured it out you can right click on these files - and you'll see the option to either open in Excel online or open an excel in the desktop so right-click is an option you'll also see that you can use the ellipses and get the exact same options you can also select the file click open and hey look the exact same options so there's a ton of different ways to do the exact same thing but if all else fails you simply click on the name of the file and it'll open it up directly in Excel online so here I am in an Excel online you'll notice however if I try to start typing it won't let me do anything why because I'm currently in a read-only view when you click on the name of a file it puts you into a web-based version of that application that can read it but it's a read-only version so to edit this document I'll now have to click on edit workbook at which point I can choose once again to either edit in the desktop version of Excel or Excel online I'll go ahead and edit in the browser once again Excel online loads up and sure enough this looks a lot like Excel now unlike Microsoft Word online Excel online isn't as full featured so there are some things that you can't do in the web that you can do in the desktop so for example for those of you that use macros macros live in the web at all you will have to edit in the desktop but otherwise if you're just making some moderate changes to values in a cell or quick changes to simple functions and formulas you're gonna have a grand old time here so in this instance I'll go ahead and make some quick changes like go ahead and find who is the sales lead I'll add a bit of formatting here I'll go ahead and say the sales lead is me Sean bee will populate that all the way down super easy we'll go ahead and leave that at that now once again I'd like to go ahead and point out that there is no Save button once again if I click on the file tab I see save as I don't see save all changes in Excel are made as soon as you leave the cell so everything is being saved instantly so you'll see here the process of editing existing files is almost identical to creating new files the only difference is there's existing data versus not to get back simply click on the site name here in the top left-hand corner and just like that all those changes are saved so to recap to edit an existing file right click open choose whether you'd like to work online or in the desktop I get a lot of questions about whether there's a better option whether it's the desktop or online it's entirely dependent on you we're not taking away the desktop tool and likewise we're not saying you can't use online each one meets a specific need if you're making quick changes and you don't want to go through the whole process of opening it up in the desktop make those changes online if you need access to the full features of the desktop application go for it edit in the desktop there's not a better or worse and you'll find for yourself which ones make the most sense for you as time goes on go ahead and pause the video and edit an existing file here in SharePoint Online no different than when we were working in lists creating items editing existing items is it hard it's just procedural it's knowing where the buttons are that said however we did see that there were some processes that looked and felt a little bit different in libraries as opposed to lists for example uploading isn't something that we necessarily do inside of lists that said we'd like to take it one step further to start to talk about something we didn't mention in lists but nonetheless would retroactively lis apply to lists as well the ability to manage records metadata so you might have noticed here on the far right-hand side we have a column that hasn't been populated related project this is metadata this is a quick refresher for those of you that missed the earlier videos metadata is simply data about data anything that gives us more information about a file or item is metadata so a file name when it was modified who uploaded it who most recently edited it what version of this document are we looking at these are all metadata fields but metadata can also be specific to a team project or organization in this case I have a column called related project so I'd like to be able to say that the annual budget review is related to project red for example to edit existing file metadata you've got a couple of options at your disposal as we have with almost everything we've done the first and perhaps the easiest is if you already have the metadata field here that you'd like to be able to edit so if the current view has the field you want to edit you can use the quick edit tool now this is the same style of quick edit tool that we saw when we were working with lists simply click on quick edit and you'll notice that the entire library has broken down into what looked like little individualized cells so now I can click in the related project there's a drop down list and I can choose the appropriate project not that so I'll go and say the important folder is related to project blue annual budget project red you'll notice with each change that I make and quick edit a little pencil appears indicating that the record is being updated the minute I leave that row the pencil disappears indicating that the change has been saved when you're done simply click done and there you go I've now updated the related project but you can also add metadata that doesn't already exist now keep in mind that the average end-user might not be able to do this your site admins and site owners might restrict your ability to create new metadata but if you do have the ability to create new metadata you'll simply click the plus icon here on the far right hand side and choose what type of metadata will it be will it be a text field well you're just going to type in will it be a paragraph field will people will put notes is there going to be a number would you like to choose that person from your active directory will it be a date you can even go so far as to do what we've done here and create a choice list so keep in mind that you're not limited to just the metadata that already exists you can also create your own just as a quick side note not only were we able to use quick edit to edit that existing metadata you could have also right-click on the file and chosen not open because remember that would edit the file but instead if I go to more I can edit the properties including related project if I choose to edit so sure enough there's related project I'll choose project green click Save and there you go use my breadcrumb trail to get back to central documents well so there you go two different ways to edit the existing metadata of a file or folder for that matter we could have used quick edit we could have used the right-click and gone to more remember the right-click is the same menu that you would have seen if you had clicked on the ellipses and gone to more two different ways to edit existing metadata quick edit right-click more properties keep in mind that the right-click menu that we see here is the same menu that we would have seen by clicking on the ellipses going to more and choosing properties go ahead and pause the video and either create your own metadata and updated or edit existing metadata that already exists we'll see after the break when you upload a file to a SharePoint library one of the things that you're doing that's different than emailing a document or putting that file in a shared network drive is that specifically you are surrendering ownership of that file you're essentially saying that whomever has the same permissions that I do in a given library will have just as much access to this file as I will it's important to note that SharePoint is for collaboration it's for putting something in a central location through which anybody can access that file that has the appropriate permissions edit that file with the appropriate permissions and so on that said inevitably someone will make a change that you don't necessarily agree with so let's come back to this fiscal year 2016 results for example I'll go ahead and make some quick changes in the web and what I'll do here is I'll go ahead and select everything or at least a good amount of it and I'll clear it oops so I just deleted a whole bunch of that and I'll go ahead and insert a chart there you go so I've done damage to this file remember when you upload a document to a library everybody has access to it at least everybody that has the appropriate permissions has access to it so while that's also a good thing because of real-time collaboration and the ability for us to see all changes simultaneously it also means that occasionally people will gain access to a file that we may not necessarily want to have access to a file and they might make changes we don't agree with so I've made some changes here and of course keep in mind that all changes are saved instantly so I'm going to go ahead and click back on the name project central to get back to my documents library they are in mind that all changes were saved instantly so you might imagine that someone would be pretty upset if they found out that I had done that fortunately keep in mind that just like in lists we have access to version history of files to access the past version history of a file in a library simply find the file select it and click the ellipses up at the top portion of the toolbar if version history is turned on and keep in mind it is a feature that must be turned on in order to have access to it you'll see the option version history bear in mind that you can also access version history by right-clicking on the file or by clicking on the ellipses same options go ahead and click on version history and fortunately for us those changes that I just made a moment ago well while they are still changes that exist their changes that can be easily reversed by reverting back to a past version of that file simply click on the drop down arrow next to the timestamp and select restore and confirm and just like that if I were to click on fy16 you'll see that all those changes have been undone I have reverted back to a past version of that file so version history an incredibly valuable tool that will only continue to show its value as we get more and more collaborative in our day to day work environments so to recap to access past versions of a file simply find the file right click and select version history you'll notice here that versions also track metadata updates go ahead and pause the video and check out the past versions of files you've worked with we'll see after the break having just come away from the version history conversation we often find people are a little spooked by this idea that if I upload something to a library that means anybody can edit it or at least anybody that has access to this library but nonetheless that's a lot of people potentially so what if I don't want other people to be able to edit this file what if I only want to be the one to edit a file at least while I'm working on it for example I may not want other people to try and edit a file at the same time that I am now it's important to note that in 2017 microsoft has all but eliminated some of the biggest challenges that come with multiple people being inside of a file in fact if you have the latest versions of Microsoft Office 365 or office 2016 you already have access to what's called real-time collaboration meaning that if multiple people are inside of a file you'll actually be notified and in some of the newer versions of SharePoint you'll actually see those changes taking place in real time so there's never a chance of two people working in the same place simultaneously and if there were each of the you would see the other's changes instantly but that said there may be times where you don't want anybody to be inside of a file while you're working on it and for those instances we have a tool called checkout so what is checkout why does it matter well as you'll see if a document is not checked out you only have exclusive rights to edit the file when you're in the full Microsoft Office application and more importantly only while the file is opened you will not have exclusive rights to edit that file if you're using any of the Microsoft Office online web apps so if you're using word online Excel online PowerPoint online if a file is not checked out anybody else can also go in and edit that file while you're in it now keep in mind once again you will see those changes in real time but nonetheless that does mean that other people can edit that file with you when you do save changes those changes are immediately synchronized with sharepoint and published meaning that others will see any work in progress that you might not have been ready to show so these are all things that happen when a file is not checked out now keep in mind these aren't bad things they're just things to be aware of for example you might want to collaborate with somebody you might want when you click Save for all those changes to be instantly visible but if you don't then you'll want to be aware of check out when a document is checked out you have exclusive rights to edit that file both online and using the desktop apps for as long as that file is checked out you will continue to have exclusive rights there is no time limitation on how long a file can be checked out so if you're going to take seven days to update a file and you want to be able to just in one motion publish all your changes you might consider checking it out likewise if you don't want others to work in this file with you simultaneously or to be able to edit it at all while it's quote-unquote in progress you might want to consider checking it out when a file is checked out when you save changes those changes are not synchronized with SharePoint so yeah others won't be able to see your work in progress the only person who will be able to see your work in progress is you until you check in that file so let's talk about how to check out a file to check out a file like let's say here the annual budget review first select the file by now you should have figured out that when you do select a file your contextual tools appear up at the top portion of the screen from there click the ellipses and you'll see the option to if a file is already checked in to check out a file this file has now been checked out meaning that I have exclusive editing rights to this file now one other thing to keep in mind when a file is checked out it doesn't keep track of versions while a file is checked out so any changes that you make are all being saved under a single version update so right now for example this file is currently version 3.0 so this checked out iteration of this file version 3.0 it will continue to be version 3.0 for as long as it is checked out no matter how many times I save it and it's only once I check it back in that all the changes will be published and it will become version 4.0 now when a file is checked out you'll notice that the icon itself actually has a little bit of a change there's a little green arrow in the bottom right corner of the icon that indicates that a files checked out you'll also notice that there are a couple of other files that are checked out now a file can also be checked out forcibly by SharePoint if it's missing information so keep in mind if you've ever uploaded a file before and it just instantly checked itself out it's usually because it's missing some information if you're not sure whether somebody's checked it out or if it's missing information simply hover over the green icon and it'll tell you in this case you can see here that the file is checked out because it's missing properties so if I want to fix that I can actually go ahead and select the file and edit its properties so you'll see here the property that it's missing right now is related project that's a required field so if I were to go ahead and edit that update the metadata and save it you I can now go ahead and give it the appropriate information you'll notice that no longer tells me that anything is missing it simply says checked out to check a file back in simply choose one or if there are many the many that need to be checked in and go ahead and if you do the right-click menu you'll choose more and check in remember you can also just select the file and go to the ellipses up at the top and check in is available here as well if you'd like to add comments as to why changes were made or what changes were made as you're checking it back in this is a good place to do it so I'll go ahead and say updated required metadata that way if anyone's curious what changes were made they now know you'll notice that once a file is checked in there's no icon so there you go checking out and checking in a file are incredibly important facets of managing files here in SharePoint now it's important to note one of the number one questions I get here is what would happen if somebody were to check out a file and then forget to check it back in a site owner or site administrator can force check-in a document to force check in a document they'll simply select the file either go to the ellipses up at the top or go to the ellipses on the right and they'll have two options discard check out or check in now remember no changes are synced to SharePoint until you check a file back in so if a site admin chooses discard check out it doesn't matter how many times you click Save it doesn't matter how long you've had it checked out discard check out says get rid of all changes that were made prior to them checking it out so if I've been working on this file for 30 days they can kill all those changes using discard check out check in on the other hand keeps all changes that may have been made while this file was checked out and checks it back in so bear in mind that site owners and site admins have that flexibility to choose between the two but nonetheless they can force check in a document and there you go go ahead and pause the video and try checking out of the document for yourself in fact go ahead and make some changes check the version history to see that no matter how many changes you make while a file is checked out it will not create new versions until you check it back in will see after the break welcome back so when it comes to working with document libraries hopefully you're starting to see that there's a lot of similarities between lists and libraries at least in terms of what tools are available that said the major difference between the two continues to be what kind of data they hold lists hold data directly so they're generally information that you type directly into SharePoint libraries on the other hand hold files that hold that data so you're talking about Word documents Excel spreadsheets PDFs now when we talk about document libraries and of course about managing files the question naturally inevitably comes up well where do folders fit in I'd like to be able to use folders now keep in mind folders do exist inside of document libraries and we do have the ability to put them to work but it's important to know what they represent and how we can work with and without them so folders were designed initially to organize things into single subject matter which is to say that one file goes into one folder now that said it's a pretty limiting concept so keep in mind that custom metadata can help to organize files in a way that folders generally can't by allowing you to sign multiple fields of information that help to organize sort and filter the content now of course that quick pep talks not going to change your mind if you really need to use folders or if you work for an organization that really needs folders to create a new folder simply find the new drop-down up at the top portion of the screen and click folder type the name of the folder and click create once a folder has been created of course clicking inside of it will take you in and if it's empty it'll tell you it's empty to get back you could use the back button but remember try to use some of the navigational hooks that are available in the actual SharePoint interface so I can use the breadcrumb trail to get back to central documents to add files to a library you've got a couple of different options available if it's just a handful you can select them and then click and drag into the appropriate folder you can also select a few of them and select move to keep in mind that not only can move to move to other folders within a library it can also allow you to move to other libraries if there are any available in this case I'll go ahead and move these to q2 so you can see how easy it is to move all of these files into individualized folders if we need to but that said once again note that folders are just one option that's available out of many to organize files go ahead and pause the video and create your own folders and if you have a few files move those files into folders just as a quick side note if you do have a file that's in a folder and you'd like to move it up a level simply drag and drop using the breadcrumb trail up at the top portion of the screen and you'll notice that it brings it back go ahead and try that out and we'll see after the break now there's a chance that you have bought into the idea of metadata being a better organizational tool than folders the problem is that you can't force somebody that you work with not to use folders so how do you find a compromise between using folders and not using folders it does seem pretty black-and-white fortunately folders like many other fields that we've talked about is just another type of metadata albeit a style of metadata that has its own visual cues like a folder icon that you have to click into that said just like all other types of metadata we can create custom views that filter that metadata out so that all we're left with are the files I'd like to show you how to do that now so first things first we're going to need to create a new view we've already talked about this in a previous video so we're gonna glaze through a couple of the steps here but keep in mind that if you want to follow up on the more in-depth parts of creating a view you can check with our previous video so first I'm gonna go ahead and jump up to the view drop-down and I'm going to save this view now I haven't made any changes to it just yet but because of the new modern interface not all the features that were available in the classic view are available just yet so I'm gonna go ahead and click save view and I'm gonna call this the flat view I can choose whether or not to make it public or personal by following this check mark in this case I'll go ahead and leave it public because other people might want to use this view too and I'll click Save now that I've created this new view I'm gonna go ahead and edit the current view editing the current view will take you into the more traditional view creation field so it's here of course that I can use the check marks to select what metadata is visible I can make it the default view if I want to I can even change the name now I mentioned that folders are just another type of metadata so you might think ok well then we just have to uncheck folders somewhere here right well you're not gonna see anything really regarding except for maybe folder child count but that's not what we're looking for instead we're gonna scroll down just a little bit further so one of the sections we didn't talk about in the previous video the folders section so I want to go ahead and expand the folder section and it gives you two options either show items inside folders or show all items without folders now this isn't the world's greatest named tool because it might imply that it will only show you files that haven't been filed into folders but that's not actually true so check this out I'm gonna go ahead and select show all items without folders and click OK and check it out this is the flat view all the files that were in those folders without the folders if I go back to the all documents view the default view currently you'll see those folders are all still there I can still click inside of them to see just the files that are in there but if I need to see all the files all at once I now have a flat view which plucks them all out of their folders and presents them in a single list that I can now sort filter and create new views based on if I need to pretty cool so to recap we saved the view so that we could then edit the current view we went to the folder section while modifying the view and said show all items without folders and we click Save go ahead and pause the video and try that for yourself thanks for watching don't forget we also offer live classes and office applications professional development and private training visit learning comm for more details please remember to like and subscribe and let us know your thoughts in the comments thank you for choosing learn it [Music] you

Channel: Learnit Training

Views: 55,501

Keywords: free Sharepoint Online tutorial, Sharepoint Online intermediate tutorial, Sharepoint Online, learn Sharepoint Online, Sharepoint Online tips and tricks, Sharepoint Online tutorial, Sharepoint Online training, tips and tricks Sharepoint Online, Sharepoint Online how to, free Sharepoint Online training, Sharepoint Online free tutorial, Sharepoint Online tutorial free, free, how to use Sharepoint Online, e learning microsoft 2016

Id: 2RVVwjQOsT4

Length: 90min 12sec (5412 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019