I wanted to do a quick blog post that covers some of the functionality that is provided out of the box within Lists & Libraries that I think is often overlooked. One of the features I am referring to is the use of the out of the box view styles that can be configured. In my example below I will be looking at a task list and the different view styles that can be configured for this list. Most lists have the same styles available, so while my post is dealing with a task list it in theory applies to all list types and libraries.

To get started, I will be showing screenshots of the different styles available out of the box. From there we will review the easiest way to create a view that uses the pre-defined styles.

Basic Table

This style is probably the one that is most familiar to you, as it is the default style for many lists. This style will display the items in rows and columns based on the columns you have selected to be displayed. Here is a screenshot of this view for our task list:

Boxed No Labels

This style is going to take all of your list data and display it in a small box. Each data item will be placed in order based on the columns displayed across the top (what columns and what order can be configured in each view).

This style gives you the ability to visually display small groups of data. For information that is lengthy or contains many columns this would be a good alternative to scrolling across vertically to see all of the columns of data.

Boxed

This style gives you the ability to visually display small groups of data and displays the column headers next to the information (unlike Boxed No Labels).

Newsletter

This style is going to display the content in a combination of rows and columns. The organization is based on the amount of data you have to be displayed, the types of fields and the order. If you are unhappy with how it is displayed, try switching up the column ordering or columns displayed to get a slightly different look.

Newsletter No Lines

This is the same style as Newsletter; however the horizontal line between each item is not displayed. Instead, every other item is slightly shaded.

Shaded

This view is the same as the Basic table view, however every other item in the view is shaded. The color used in the shading is based on the colors selected in the theme. This style really helps draw the user’s attention to the different line items.

Preview

This style allows you to select a title of an item in the list and then the corresponding fields are displayed in a preview pane. This is a create view to use when building a contact list or an FAQ site.

Putting It to Use

Now that you have seen some of the styles, let’s look at how you might be able to put them to use. Below are some examples of different views in action. Notice how they don’t really change any functionality; they just add some nice usability to the site.

A Directory

Using the preview pane on a list provides a great way for users to quickly find information about different users. In my example I have a list of offices and details about that office. For the preview pane as a user scrolls over the Office name they will see information about the person who is in that office. Without leaving the page, users will be able to access the detailed information they are looking for.

Dashboard

In this example we have 3 lists on the page, connected using Web Part Connections. The first web part is using the Newsletter Style. The middle web part is using the Box style and the right web part is using the Newsletter no line style. Using the different views will help the users easily see and process the data on the page.

If you haven’t really done much using the default styles, I would encourage you to try them out. You will likely find that your users appreciate the different views and the styles that can be used. Just a few small things that you can change on the web parts to really add some additional value to the users.

One thing that is little known is that you can easily customize the View, Edit and Display forms for lists without using InfoPath or custom development. You can simply add connected web parts to display related data. To do this navigate to the list and open the page you want to edit.

Once the page opens you can add web parts to it and configure them like you would on any other page.

You won’t be able to change the text layout, but you can still accomplish a lot using the layout that is provided. The item that is displayed is filtered and in some cases can’t provide the web part connections you might expect. So what I like to do is add a hidden web part that displays all the fields of the current item. I then use that hidden web part as a filter for all the other web parts. In the example I have below I have a Display Item view and I wanted to show all the other suggestions that existed for that same department. To do this I added one web part and set it to get the ID from the primary web part and then I set the other filters from the hidden web part. Below is a mockup of my design.

The end result that you get is to see a list of related items based on the item you open. Doing this helps push relevant information to users in a few simple steps by using connected web parts.

You can use this technique to show related data or you can simply use this technique to add reminder messages or notes to your users. No matter what path you choose this is a simple way to add great value to your solutions

So fair warning, but this post is going to require a bit of code. No worries though, as you can use the text tools inside of SharePoint to build the html and then just copy the code. The idea is that we have a workflow that is sending an email and we want to add some formatting to the email. You do this by creating the workflow and then editing the advanced options for the email step.

Here is an example of our workflow steps:

In the Email step we would like to make sure that the email has some added styles. You do this by selecting the email step and then opening the Advanced Properties menu.

Within the Advanced Properties menu you can see that the body of the email is displayed in HTML. If you select the ellipse (…) then you will be able to open an HTML editor. One trick to create the html is to go to a SharePoint list and enter in the text that you want, formatted the way you want. Once you do that you can Edit the Source to get the HTML that was generated by your entry. You can then copy and paste that into the advanced properties.

Once you make these changes and publish the workflow your will see the new formatting as part of your workflow email messages.

One common task I have heard people want to do is to create a common navigation that can be used across multiple site collections. In previous versions of SharePoint this would be something that required a custom solution. Using the features within SharePoint 2013 though this can be done with no custom code.

First, you will need to create a Group within the Term Store. You may need to work with your site administrators to make sure that you can do this or to get them to assist you in creating it. Scope is important on this one as you will want to ensure you are creating it at a global level and not just within a single site collection. For my example I created a Group called Navigation.

Within this group I created a New Term Set called “Intranet”.

For this Term Set I set the intended use for Site Navigation.

From there I simply added the terms that I wanted to have displayed in my navigation. You could also configure additional navigation settings within the Navigation section of each term. For my example I just selected all the default options.

Once I have things the way that makes sense for my navigation, I will open the team site that I want to use the navigation. You will want to first make sure that publishing is enabled.

One that is enabled you can open the navigation settings and configure the navigation to use your term set.

Once you configure this, the navigation will be linked to the term store, which means changes in the term store will be visible in your navigation. This is a great way to provide consistency for your users across multiple site collections.

One of the awesome things about SharePoint workflow is the ability to create a task for someone and as part of that task collect additional information that can be used as part of the next step in the workflow. For example, I may want to send something to a team manager that is going to review the request and then assign it to someone within their team. I want the manager to approve the item and provide an assignment for the next task. You can easily create a custom form that is used in your workflow tasks using the Custom Workflow Task. We start by creating a new content type based on the Workflow Task (SharePoint 2013) content type.

Next, we will need to customize the content type to add the fields that we want to have displayed. You can also delete and hide fields from the default content type. As a general rule I simply hide the ones that I don’t need. One thing to be warned about is the importance of the % complete, Task Status and the Task Outcome fields. These must be displayed on the form in order for the Task Outcome to be displayed as buttons. For instance if I hide all of those fields I will get a drop down that says outcome and not a nice set of buttons that say “Reject” or “Accept” (button text is based on my outcome column.

You can make these changes by clicking on the column name and updating the options.

You can also create your new site columns here to collect additional data in the workflow task. For my example I am going to gather request type, request comments and request priority.

If you would like to have the buttons on the task display custom text you will need to create a column of type Task Outcome and select the choices to what you would like to have displayed on the buttons.

Here is a screenshot of my final configuration:

Now that the content type has been created we will be able to access it within our workflow. Just open your site in SharePoint Designer 2013 and create a new workflow associated with your list. Within your workflow add the “Start a Task Process” action.

Next you should click on “these users” to open and configure the task process. To associate your custom workflow task to this action simply reference it in the “Outcome Options” section.

This means that when this step of the workflow is reached, the tasks created will be based off of your custom content type. Also, note that in order for this to work correctly your content type must also be associated with the list that is storing the tasks for your workflow.

Now whenever your workflow reaches that step a task will get created off the content type. When a user goes to edit and complete the task, they will see the following:

Hopefully this blog post can help you get started on understanding how to create custom workflow tasks. This topic is quite long and involved, so as time permits I hope to be able to come back to this topic and provide some additional details and configuration options. This should be enough to help you get started though!

This is one of those topics that I feel gets overlooked a lot as we move forward with additional releases of SharePoint. If you happen to have been using SharePoint for years you probably have a good idea of the workflows available and what you can do with them, but if you are just getting started (like so many I talk to are) then it can be often times overwhelming. In this post I am going to provide a very high level overview of the workflows available how they all work together.

What is a Workflow?

The first thing is an understanding of what a workflow is and how it works within SharePoint. In the most basic terms in SharePoint a workflow is a way to route content to a library or a list, collect data from a user, create tasks for a user or to send notification to users. The workflows come in two flavors – configurable or custom. There are currently two different workflow engines available and visible within SharePoint – the SharePoint 2010 workflows and the SharePoint 2013 workflows. These are two different types of workflows with two different sets of actions and functionality. This means that there are some things you can do in one version of the workflow that you simply cannot do in the other. This is honestly where some of the confusion comes from in my opinion. The reason that both exist today is to help ensure that workflows you built in SharePoint 2010 are still compatible in SharePoint 2013.

There are several different kinds of workflow that you can create –

• List Workflow: These are associated with a single list and are started for each item in the list.
• Site Workflows: These are workflows that are not based on a specific list and can be found in Site Actions. An example of these would be “sending a weekly email reminder”.
• Reusable Workflows: These are workflows that are associated with a content type (think “Project Charter” or “Sales Report”) and can be configured to run on any content that is of that same content type.

In my experience, most workflows that the typical business power user creates are the List Workflows and are based on a specific process that can be clearly identified.

Configurable or Custom?

The next area that seems to cause some confusion is around the area of adding a workflow to a list or creating a custom workflow. In SharePoint 2010 workflows there are a collection of workflows that exists as templates that can be configured for lists. These workflows are common activities such as document approval or collecting comments. In 2013, these configurable workflows don’t exist so all of the workflows you build are custom workflows that you can build within SharePoint Designer. If you want to add one of these configurable workflows to your list you can do so through the Workflow settings option (ensure the workflows feature is activated).

2010 Workflows on a 2013 Site?

Yes, this is completely possible. In fact in many cases I have seen users purposely create a 2010 workflow because they are wanting to use a set a features that was only available within 2010 and not available at all in 2013. Whenever you create a new workflow in SharePoint 2013 you will be given the opportunity to select if you would like to build the workflow using the 2010 or the 2013 foundation.

Hopefully this very quick, high level post helps shed some light on the concept of workflows and helps you see the available options for out of the box workflows.

One of the most common requests I get from users is the ability to create a weekly reminder notification that will remind users to complete an action. Using the SharePoint 2013 workflows this is a pretty easy requirement to meet since we now have access to looping.

To get started you will need to create a site workflow. For my example I am creating an initiation variable that allows the user to set an end date when they start the workflow. The workflow will send an email, pause for 7 days and then loop again. The first check in the loop is to determine if the date is less than the end date. By doing this we are able to set a reoccurring workflow that will repeatedly remind users of items.

Here are some screenshots to get you started.

Our workflow first sets a variable (type date) to the current date. It then enters the loop and tests to see if the variable Today is less than the End Date (variable entered by workflow starter). If the condition is true it will send an email and then add 7 days to the variable and wait until the 7 days are up and then start the loop again.

The email is a pretty basic email and a screenshot of the design of it is included below.

Enter in the date that you would like the reminders to stop being sent.

Once this has been started, the users you selected in your workflow will get an email notification (as you configured in your workflow).

Additional Ideas

This post has an example of how you could send out a weekly reminder via email to a team, but there are multiple uses for this concept. Another common example would be if you wanted to create new tasks every week. So an example would be “we have a weekly set of tasks that need to be completed” – your workflow could create and assign those new tasks every week. Reminders are a huge part of our daily tasks and using these simple workflow techniques will help you really make the most of your business solutions!

One of the awesome things about SharePoint workflow is the ability to create a task for someone and as part of that task collect additional information that can be used as part of the next step in the workflow. For example, I may want to send something to a team manager that is going to review the request and then assign it to someone within their team. I want the manager to approve the item and provide an assignment for the next task. You can easily create a custom form that is used in your workflow tasks using the Custom Workflow Task. We start by creating a new content type based on the Workflow Task (SharePoint 2013) content type.

Next, we will need to customize the content type to add the fields that we want to have displayed. You can also delete and hide fields from the default content type. As a general rule I simply hide the ones that I don’t need. One thing to be warned about is the importance of the % complete, Task Status and the Task Outcome fields. These must be displayed on the form in order for the Task Outcome to be displayed as buttons. For instance if I hide all of those fields I will get a drop down that says outcome and not a nice set of buttons that say “Reject” or “Accept” (button text is based on my outcome column.

You can make these changes by clicking on the column name and updating the options.

You can also create your new site columns here to collect additional data in the workflow task. For my example I am going to gather request type, request comments and request priority.

If you would like to have the buttons on the task display custom text you will need to create a column of type Task Outcome and select the choices to what you would like to have displayed on the buttons.

Here is a screenshot of my final configuration:

Now that the content type has been created we will be able to access it within our workflow. Just open your site in SharePoint Designer 2013 and create a new workflow associated with your list. Within your workflow add the “Start a Task Process” action.

Next you should click on “these users” to open and configure the task process. To associate your custom workflow task to this action simply reference it in the “Outcome Options” section.

This means that when this step of the workflow is reached, the tasks created will be based off of your custom content type. Also, note that in order for this to work correctly your content type must also be associated with the list that is storing the tasks for your workflow.

Now whenever your workflow reaches that step a task will get created off the content type. When a user goes to edit and complete the task, they will see the following:

Hopefully this blog post can help you get started on understanding how to create custom workflow tasks. This topic is quite long and involved, so as time permits I hope to be able to come back to this topic and provide some additional details and configuration options. This should be enough to help you get started though!

I wanted to do a quick blog post that covers some of the functionality that is provided out of the box within Lists & Libraries that I think is often overlooked. One of the features I am referring to is the use of the out of the box view styles that can be configured. In my example below I will be looking at a task list and the different view styles that can be configured for this list. Most lists have the same styles available, so while my post is dealing with a task list it in theory applies to all list types and libraries.

To get started, I will be showing screenshots of the different styles available out of the box. From there we will review the easiest way to create a view that uses the pre-defined styles.

Basic Table

This style is probably the one that is most familiar to you, as it is the default style for many lists. This style will display the items in rows and columns based on the columns you have selected to be displayed. Here is a screenshot of this view for our task list:

Boxed No Labels

This style is going to take all of your list data and display it in a small box. Each data item will be placed in order based on the columns displayed across the top (what columns and what order can be configured in each view).

This style gives you the ability to visually display small groups of data. For information that is lengthy or contains many columns this would be a good alternative to scrolling across vertically to see all of the columns of data.

Boxed

This style gives you the ability to visually display small groups of data and displays the column headers next to the information (unlike Boxed No Labels).

Newsletter

This style is going to display the content in a combination of rows and columns. The organization is based on the amount of data you have to be displayed, the types of fields and the order. If you are unhappy with how it is displayed, try switching up the column ordering or columns displayed to get a slightly different look.

Newsletter No Lines

This is the same style as Newsletter; however the horizontal line between each item is not displayed. Instead, every other item is slightly shaded.

Shaded

This view is the same as the Basic table view, however every other item in the view is shaded. The color used in the shading is based on the colors selected in the theme. This style really helps draw the user’s attention to the different line items.

Preview

This style allows you to select a title of an item in the list and then the corresponding fields are displayed in a preview pane. This is a create view to use when building a contact list or an FAQ site.

Putting It to Use

Now that you have seen some of the styles, let’s look at how you might be able to put them to use. Below are some examples of different views in action. Notice how they don’t really change any functionality; they just add some nice usability to the site.

A Directory

Using the preview pane on a list provides a great way for users to quickly find information about different users. In my example I have a list of offices and details about that office. For the preview pane as a user scrolls over the Office name they will see information about the person who is in that office. Without leaving the page, users will be able to access the detailed information they are looking for.

Dashboard

In this example we have 3 lists on the page, connected using Web Part Connections. The first web part is using the Newsletter Style. The middle web part is using the Box style and the right web part is using the Newsletter no line style. Using the different views will help the users easily see and process the data on the page.

If you haven’t really done much using the default styles, I would encourage you to try them out. You will likely find that your users appreciate the different views and the styles that can be used. Just a few small things that you can change on the web parts to really add some additional value to the users.

One thing that is little known is that you can easily customize the View, Edit and Display forms for lists without using InfoPath or custom development. You can simply add connected web parts to display related data. To do this navigate to the list and open the page you want to edit.

Once the page opens you can add web parts to it and configure them like you would on any other page.

You won’t be able to change the text layout, but you can still accomplish a lot using the layout that is provided. The item that is displayed is filtered and in some cases can’t provide the web part connections you might expect. So what I like to do is add a hidden web part that displays all the fields of the current item. I then use that hidden web part as a filter for all the other web parts. In the example I have below I have a Display Item view and I wanted to show all the other suggestions that existed for that same department. To do this I added one web part and set it to get the ID from the primary web part and then I set the other filters from the hidden web part. Below is a mockup of my design.

The end result that you get is to see a list of related items based on the item you open. Doing this helps push relevant information to users in a few simple steps by using connected web parts.

You can use this technique to show related data or you can simply use this technique to add reminder messages or notes to your users. No matter what path you choose this is a simple way to add great value to your solutions