Creating Master Lists and Views

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In this third part of a four-part series on lists in SharePoint, you will learn how to get the most out of master lists and views. It is excerpted from Essential SharePoint 2007, Second Edition, A Practical Guide for Users, Administrators and Developers, written by Jeff Webb (O'Reilly, 2008; ISBN: 0596514077). Copyright © 2008 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media.

Creating Master Lists

Figure 4-10 shows the updated Phone List web part that uses the new Department Lookup column to group the phone numbers. To see why I used a lookup site column in this sample rather than a choice site column, follow these steps: 

1. Click on the Information Technology department link on the Phone List web part. SharePoint displays the item in the Departments list.
   
2. Click Edit Item and change the name to “IT,” then click OK.
   
3. Go back to the Phone List web part and refresh the page. The Information Technology department is now shown as IT.

Not only that, but the name is updated throughout the site collection! In this case, the Department list functions as a master list for the site collection.

Figure 4-10.  Use lookup site columns to share lists across sites

Lookups link lists together. Site columns span site boundaries. You combine them to create master lists. Master lists have these characteristics:

1. Exist at the top-level site in a site collection
   
2. Have a lookup site column
   
3. Hold values that need to be reused throughout the site collection

SharePoint does not have a way to create global master lists—lists can’t span site collections. To reuse the master list in other site collections, you must copy the list to the other site collection and create a new site column in that collection.

Next: Creating Views >>
 

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This article is excerpted from Essential SharePoint 2007, Second Edition, A Practical Guide for Users, Administrators and Developers, written by Jeff Webb (O'Reilly, 2008; ISBN: 0596514077). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.