4.3. Working with Columns

It's time to look deeper into what columns are and how you can effectively use them to define and organize information within your SharePoint sites. By carefully planning the various components of your site, you can build an environment that a user will successfully adopt. This section first discusses what a column is and then shows you how to create a column, which is also called a list-centric column, or a column that is attached to a single list. Like the lists and libraries discussed in the first three chapters of this book, columns have different types, and you'll examine the various column types that you have available to you. Next, you learn what a site column is and then examine when to use a list-centric column versus when to use a site column.

4.3.1. What Is a Column?

A column is an element of information that describes an item on a SharePoint site. In some cases, the item may be an event, a company, or a task; in other cases, it may be a document, a web page, or a business form. In SharePoint, any content stored in a list or library is considered an item. No matter what the actual item is, columns provide a great way to further define and organize information beyond what is available via titles or folders.

Defining information effectively is a key reason you use SharePoint. Therefore, you may need to add new columns to define the various list and library items. For example, you can add a column to track document status to a document library ...

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