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Organize Your Files Using a SharePoint Custom List
By Lori Johnson, Collaboration Specialist
Your SharePoint site (known to many of you as Companyweb) can solve a number of organizational problems, including some you didn’t even know you had. Let’s say you have a number of files spread across multiple network drives and folders, as well as files uploaded to one or more Document Libraries on your SharePoint site. Each directory or library might have different permissions structures that you don’t want to break or have to reinvent just to consolidate all your documents into one location. So how do you create an Index of sorts for one-stop shopping in order to save time when looking for a specific document without taking on the laborious task of a major reorganization of your files? It’s easy – just make a custom list in SharePoint by letting Excel do all the work (chances are you don’t have a SharePoint whiz on staff, but every business has its share of Excel gurus!).
First, you’ll want to give some thought to categorizing your data and then organizing it into an Excel spreadsheet, which will serve as your master outline prior to importing it into SharePoint. There are various ways in which to do this, and your server’s directory structure might already provide a general idea on the best method for your organization’s needs. Generally speaking, Column A will contain your broadest categories, such as Administration, Operations, Human Resources, etc. Column B will break those into sub-categories, such as Hiring, Benefits, and Job Descriptions under the HR category. You can break those down further if you need to, or just go straight to specific document titles under Column C. Make sure that every cell is filled in, but you don’t need to account for every last file – remember, this is just your master outline.
Second, now it’s time to upload your list into SharePoint; make sure you have the proper permissions. As with everything in Windows, there are multiple ways to get where you’re going, but for our purposes, click on the Lists link on your Home page, then the Create button. Click on ‘Import Spreadsheet’ under Custom Lists, give it a name and description, browse to your Excel doc, then click ‘Import’. You’ll be prompted to select your range of data, so remember to include all your cells.
Third, it’s time to create a custom View for your SharePoint list. Open your list, and under View in the upper right-hand corner, click the drop-down and select ‘Create View’. You can see there are multiple options, but your best bet is to start with the default view, so click on ‘All Items’ under ‘Start from an existing view’. Next, you can give your View a name, make it the default view, then expand the ‘Group By’ section towards the bottom. From here, you will group your columns by category (this is where having filled in every cell on your spreadsheet is important); using our categories as examples, group by Column A, then Column B. Click OK and you will see your list collapsed by category. Now that you know how easy that was, feel free to go back in and fine-tune your handiwork! You can always create a new View for testing purposes, so be sure to explore all the options.
Fourth, now you want to add a hyperlink to your documents so that users can get to them with one click (if they have the proper permissions). Start by adding a new column to your list under Settings > Create Column. Give it a name, such as ‘Link to File’, choose the option ‘Hyperlink or Picture’, then make sure Hyperlink is selected below and click OK. Modify the View you created in step three above and check the box next to your new column to add it to the View. Now you’ll need to go through and edit each of your list items to add a link to the document’s current location.
Once your custom list has been created and you’re satisfied with its layout, you can add new list items at any time by going to New > New Item and filling in all the fields. Once saved, your new item will automatically appear in the correct category in your list.
Those are the basics of creating a custom Index list for access to all company docs at a glance, but as you can see, there can be some twists along the way, as well as additional options. If you don’t have a lot of experience with SharePoint, don’t worry, itSynergy is here to help! You may find that the hardest part is actually deciding how you want to categorize all your files. Organize your spreadsheet correctly, and you should only need to import it once. Easy, right?
