Working With Link Lists In SharePoint

This article is the 40th part of my SharePoint series. Here are my previous articles. 

1. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part One - Introduction
2. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Two - Web Application
3. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Three - Site Collections
4. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Four - Subsites
5. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Five – SharePoint Lists
6. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Six - Power Of Versioning
7. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seven - Lists Advanced Settings
8. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eight - Validation Settings in List Settings
9. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nine - Audience Targeting
10. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Ten - Rating Settings
11. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eleven - Form Settings in List Settings
12. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twelve- Save list as a template in List Setting
13. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirteen- Permission Settings in List Settings
14. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fourteen- Enterprise Metadata and Keywords
15. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fifteen - Retention Policy Under Information Management
16. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Sixteen - RSS Settings in List Setting
17. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seventeen - List Columns in SharePoint
18. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eighteen - Multiple Lines Of Text Column Type in SharePoint
19. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nineteen - Number and Choice Column Type in SharePoint
20. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty - Currency and Yes No Column types in SharePoint
21. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty One - Person or Group Column types in SharePoint
22. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Two - Date and Time Column types in SharePoint
23. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Twenty-Three – Look Up Column Type in SharePoint
24. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty Four - Hyperlink or Picture Column Types in SharePoint
25. Learn SharePoint In Series -Part Twenty-Five - Calculated Column in SharePoint
26. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Six - Task Outcomes and External Data Column Type in SharePoint
27. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Seven - Introduction to Managed Metadata Column Types
28. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Eight - Introduction to Site Columns
29. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty Nine - Editing and Deleting Site Columns
30. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty - Column Reordering in SharePoint
31. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-One - Indexing in SharePoint Lists and Libraries
32. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Two - Introduction to SharePoint Views
33. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Three - Creating a SharePoint List View
34. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Four- Editing and Deleting a SharePoint List View
35. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Five - Standard View and Datasheet View
36. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Six - Gantt View in SharePoint
37. Learn SharePoint In Series - Calendar View In SharePoint
38. Learn SharePoint In Series - Calendar View In SharePoint
39. Learn SharePoint In Series - Contact List in SharePoint
40. Learn SharePoint In Series - Announcement List in SharePoint

In the previous article, we have seen SharePoint Announcement lists in details. In this article, we will explore SharePoint Link Lists in details and try to understand the importance of Link list and when we can use this. In this article, we will see the below points.

• What is Link List in SharePoint and what are the advantages of it?
• Why not use a custom list instead of a link list?
• How to create link lists in SharePoint?
• Summary

What is Link List and what are the advantages of Link Lists?

 

Like other list templates, SharePoint also provides a ready-made list template to maintain the links. The name of the template is Links. Using this template, we can create a list type of links. The link list can be used to maintain the quick links of the websites, some important bookmarks, and other information in terms of a reference link.

The default columns available in these lists are -

• URL - This is a hyperlink type of column that stores the link and its title text.
• NOTES - This is a "Multiple Lines Of Text" column type. This is used to maintain the description of the ink.

 

Apart from these columns, you can create your own columns based on the requirement.

Consider a scenario where you have an organization intranet set up and you have to navigate through many pages or document library while browsing to the site. Then, what you can do is that you can create a Link list and store all the reference links to this. You can keep this link list web part on the home page with the title “Quick Links”. This will give you the bookmark like experience.

See the below snap for reference.

 

Here, you can see that a user can navigate to these links just by clicking to the given links. This can be placed anywhere on the page.
 

Why not use a custom list instead of a link list?

If we take a look at the custom list and link list, there might arise a question of why should we use a link list. We can create a custom list and add a hyperlink column to that custom list and our link list is ready; so why should we use a link list template?

Although, it is correct that we can use a custom list instead of the link list, but using a link list, we have several non-functional benefits associated with it.

Link list comes with different icons which help us to identify the link lists from the site contents. You can look at the example below.

Here, you can see that we can easily distinguish between link lists and custom lists just by looking at the icons.

When we open the custom list, it has an option to add a new item. While in the case of Link list, we will have the link text as “new link”. This creates an impression on the users who use it.

Apart from this, we have some useful predefined columns, such as NOTES and URL. So, we do not have to create these columns manually again, to maintain the links list.
 

How to create Link Lists in SharePoint?

In order to create a link list, please follow the below-given steps.

Step 1

Open the Site Content page by clicking on the "Settings" icon and then clicking “Site Contents”.

Step 2

This will open the "Site Contents" page. Click on the “Add an app” icon from this screen.

Step 3

Search for the link into the search box and then click on the “Links” icon link.

Step 4

Enter the name of the link list and click on “Create”.

Once you click on the “Create” button, it will add the link list to the Site Contents with the given name.

Step 5

Now, you can open the list and enter the data into it. Use it where it is needed. Click on the “new link” link.

Step 6

Enter the URL, Title of the URL, and Notes in the form. The title is the display text for a link.

Once you have filled the correct data, then you have to click on the “Save” button to save the link.

Note
Most of the lists have Title column by default. This is the list which does not have any TITLE columns available by default.
 

Summary

So, in this article, we have seen the process of working with link list available in SharePoint. We have also seen what link lists are, why we should use it, and how to create and configure the link lists in SharePoint. Apart from this, we have also seen why we should not use custom lists over link lists.

In the next article, I am going to talk about Promoted Links in SharePoint. If you have any question related to this article or any of the articles, do comment below.