Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty Five - Standard View And Datasheet View

In the previous article, I have explained the ways of editing and deleting SharePoint List Views. We have seen the step by step process of how to perform editing and deleting operations in List Views. Now, in this article, I will be explaining the types of Views available in SharePoint. So in this article, I will be covering the following topics.

• Background
• Types of Views available
• Standard View
• Datasheet View
• Benefits and Limitations of Datasheet Views
• Why you can’t view SharePoint List in a Datasheet View
• Summary

Background

We already know what SharePoint List Views are, How to create List Views and How to work with SharePoint List Views. Normally, the default SharePoint List View looks like a tabular grid structure. But most of the time, only grid structure layout does not work for us. We may require some other types of data representations, such as the calendar representation of our data, graphical representation etc. Based on the data representation, SharePoint offers many types of Views.

Types of Views available

• Standard Views
• Datasheet Views
• Calendar Views
• Gantt Views

Standard Views

Standard Views are the default views in the custom list. Whenever we create any custom list, the list contains the default views with the name “All Items”. The default look of Standard View is like following

Here, “All Items” view is the default Standard View.

Creating Standard View

In order to create Standard View, we follow the below steps:

Open the list in which you want to create Standard View. Let’s assume that we have to create a new Standard View in Contoso list. Open the list and then click on “List” ribbon and then click the "Create View" link.

Once you click on “Create View” link, you will have the following screen, click on “Standard View".

Once you have clicked on Standard View, you will have a "Create View" screen. You can refer to the Creating View article of this series to create the standard view.

Datasheet View

We all have worked with Microsoft Excel Program. In Excel, we have a great advantage as we can update any cell from any row and any column. Also, one more plus point of using Excel is that we do not have any save button per row. We can save the entire record in one click. SharePoint also provides the same functionality. This can be achieved by using Datasheet View. Datasheet View provides the users the ability to update data in bulk.

Creating a Datasheet view

In order to create a Datasheet View, follow the below steps.

Open the list in which you want to create the View. Let’s assume that we have to create a new Datasheet View in Contoso list. Open the list and then click on “List” ribbon and then click on the "Create View" link.

Once you click on “Create View” link, you will have the following screen, click on “Datasheet View".

Once you have clicked on Datasheet View, you will see the following screen.

Name the View and select the column which you want to be displayed in Datasheet View. Once you click OK, the “Datasheet Demo” view will be created and you will see the following screen.

So, you have created an Excel-like view in SharePoint. Just update any record. Clicking on a new empty row will allow you to enter the new record.

Once you are done updating the record, just click on “Stop” link below the list name. The data will be saved to the SharePoint List.

This view can be opened from Standard View also. You can click on “edit” link to open up the Standard View in Datasheet View.

Benefits and Limitations of Datasheet View

There are several benefits and limitations of Datasheet Views. Some of the core benefits include -

• Provides bulk editing
• Provides editing random data from any row and any column
• You can copy the data from Excel and paste it into the Datasheet View if columns are of the same type in Excel and SharePoint List.

Limitations are,

• Datasheet View allows only 100 records to edit at a time.
• CTRL+Z does not work in Datasheet View. If your control is still in the same row, then only CTRL+Z will work. But once you have clicked a new row, then, in that case, CTRL+Z will not work.

Why you can’t view SharePoint List in Datasheet View?

Sometimes, you might face the difficulty in creating or opening a list in Datasheet View. There can be multiple reasons for that, such as -

So the solution would be like,

• Reference

Summary

So in this article, I have explained brief information about SharePoint Standard View and Datasheet View. We have also seen how Datasheet View works and how to troubleshoot the problem when the Datasheet View does not work. In the next article, I will be explaining Gantt View in SharePoint. If you have any questions or suggestion, please let me know in the comments section.