Introduction

As Microsoft Lists starts rolling out to Microsoft 365, I find that more and more people seem to get confused about Microsoft Lists vs SharePoint, or complaining about how they’ll have to "learn a new product … again!".

To help alleviate concerns, I thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce you to the upcoming list templates that will be available when it shows up on your tenant.

I’m not using a secret preview of Lists or anything like that; I have cobbled the information from public Microsoft materials. As such, the actual details described in this post may change when Lists roll out completely.

Lists Home

When it becomes available on your tenant, you’ll find a new Lists icon in your suite bar (a.k.a. "The Waffle"). This is where you’ll find your recent lists, your favorite lists, and where you’ll be able to create lists easily.

The Lists Home

You can create a new list by selecting + Create new list at the top of the screen and selecting to create from a Blank list, From Excel, From an Existing List or pick from the existing Templates.

Create new list

Note that you’ll also be able to create a list from SharePoint (under Site Content | New | List) and from Microsoft Teams.

Site Content | New | List in SharePoint

I’ll cover the templates at your disposal (since everything else hasn’t changed much)

As of now, the templates that are available are (may be subject to change):

  • Issue Tracker
  • New hire checklist
  • Event itinerary
  • Business trip approvals
  • Team evaluations
  • Asset tracker
  • Project planning
  • Social media calendar

Let’s cover each one in greater details

Issue Tracker

The issue tracker makes it easy to manage issues, track statuses, priorities, and notify your team when things happen.

Issue Tracker

You can imagine adding this list to every project site

Columns

Column Type Comments
Title Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Issue description Multiple lines of text Describe the issue
Priority Choice The priority of this issue.
Choices include:
– Critical
– High
– Normal
– Low
Issue choices
Status Choice Status of the issue
Choices include:
– New (Default)
– Blocked
– In progress
– Completed
– Duplicate
– By design
– Won’t fix
file
Person or group the issue is assigned to Person or Group
Date reported Date and Time The date the issue was reported
Days old Calculated Number of days since date reported
Issue source Hyperlink or Picture Where was the issue logged (ticket, customer support call, etc.)
Images Thumbnail Any photos or images of the issue
Issue logged by Person or Group
Created By Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group
Associated files Attachments Any other files associated with the issue

Views

The issue tracker list includes the following views:

  • All Items
  • Issues grouped by person assigned to
  • Issues grouped by priority
  • Issues grouped by status

Default views

Employee Onboarding

One of those lists that every organization should have, the onboarding list helps you manage new employees as they start on their first day at your company.

Employee Onboarding

It looks like this would be a generic list you would show on an Employee orientation site. The same items would appear for every employee, although you could use this list to create new workflow tasks for new employees.

Columns

Column Type Comments
Title Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Description Multiple lines of text
Complete by Choice The due date by when work should be completed.
Choices include:
Before joining
First day
Week 1
After 30 days
After 60 days
After 90 days
Complete? Yes/No Mark as yes if work is completed
Completed On Date and Time Date on which work was completed
Mentor Person or Group Point of contact to help with the work item
Relevant link Hyperlink or Picture Helpful link to support the work
Relevant files Attachments Helpful files to support the work
Created By Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group

Views

  • All Items
  • Group work by completed by date
  • Group work by completion status
  • Work to be completed
    Onboarding views

Event Itinerary

A great way to plan events.

file

So this is how Microsoft plans all these awesome events?!

Columns

Column Type Comments
Title Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Session code Single line of text
Session type Choice Describes what kid of a session this is
Choices include:
– Meal
– Keynote
– Breakout
– Workshop
– Panel
– Talk
– Networking
file
Description Multiple lines of text
Speaker(s) Person or Group
Start date and time Date and Time
End Date and Time Date and Time
Duration Calculated
Capacity Number
Location Choice
Notes Multiple lines of text
Created By Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group
Attachments Attachments

Views

  • All Items
  • Event itinerary – grid view
  • Event itinerary – list view
  • Grouped by session type

Asset Manager

An great way to keep track of all your stuff, and whether they are checked-in and returned (and when).

Asset Manager

NOTE TO SELF: Must create an asset manager list to keep track of all the stuff I lent to my neighbors.

Columns

Column Type Comments
Asset Tag Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Device Photo Thumbnail Image of the asset
Status Choice Status of the asset
One of:
– Available
– Reserved
– In use
– In repair
– Retired
Manufacturer Choice Manufacturer of the asset. Intended to be replaced with your own list of manufacturers.
Model Single line of text Model/make of the device
Asset type Choice Type of asset:
– Smartphone
– Laptop
– Tablet
– Printer
– Accessory
Color Choice Choice of:
– Space gray
– White
– Black
– Silver
– Dark blue
– Pink
– Red
Serial number Single line of text Serial number associated with the asset
Purchase date Date and Time When the asset was purchased
Purchase price Currency The purchase price of the asset
Order # Single line of text Order or invoice number for the purchase
Current owner Person or Group Person currently using the asset
Previous owner Person or Group Person who last used the asset
Due date Date and Time When the asset will be returned by the current owner
Condition notes Multiple lines of text Notes about the current condition of the asset
Created By Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group
Attachments Attachments

Views

  • All Items
  • Grouped By asset type
  • Grouped By manufacturer
  • Purchase information
  • All available assets
  • Asset gallery

Recruitment Tracker

Keep track of your recruitment pipeline within your company or team and keep track of the candidates, their potential position, hiring process, recruiter, etc.

Recruitment tracker

Seems to be designed to make it easy to adapt to your own business process. I hope that one day I’ll show up on one of those lists at Microsoft 😉

Column Type Comments
Candidate Name Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Position Choice Position the candidate is applying for. Contains sample positions that you’ll want to change to suit your needs.
Progress Choice Where the candidate is in the hiring process
Choice of:
– New application
– Active
– On hold
– Top pick
– Offer sent
Choices
Recruiter Person or Group Person who will manage candidate scheduling
Application date Date and Time Date the application was submitted
Phone screen date Date and Time Date on which candidate will be phone-screened
Phone screener Person or Group Person who will screen candidate by phone
Interview date Date and Time Date of the interview
Interviewer(s) Person or Group Person or team who will interview the candidate
Notes Multiple lines of text Notes about the candidate
LinkedIn profile Hyperlink or Picture URL pointing to the candidate’s LinkedIn profile
Created By Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group
Resume or CV Attachments Attach candidate’s resume or CV here, if available

Views

  • All Items
  • All Items in Grid
  • Group by role
  • Group by application status
  • All new and active applicants

Travel requests

This list template doesn’t have a description. Probably because no one is traveling right now.

Travel

Not only is this list useful for tracking travel requests, but you could also use it to track who’s currently away (in case of emergencies, etc.)

Columns

Column Type Comments
Trip Title Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Reason for travel Multiple lines of text Provide a reason for this travel request. (Possible reason: to get there?)
Requester Person or Group Person who is going on this trip
Destination Location Provide the trip destination
Travel start date Date and Time Date when the travel starts
Travel end date Date and Time Date when the travel ends
Travel duration (days) Calculated
Airline Choice Name of the airline you will be flying with
Choice of:Alaska Air
Southwest
British Airways
Emirates
Japan Airlines
Estimated airfare Currency Estimated cost of airline tickets
Hotel Location Which hotel will you be staying at
Estimated hotel cost Currency Estimate hotel costs and description (not including the $50 can of peanuts)
Approved? Yes/No Is this travel request approved
Created By Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group
Attachments Attachments

Views

  • All Items
  • Grouped by approval status

Work progress tracker

Track priorities and progress as you work towards delivering products and services.

Work progress tracker

Columns

Column Type Comments
Work item Single line of text
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Description Multiple lines of text Work to be done
Category Choice Type of work
Choice of:
– Planning
– Design
– Engineering
– Marketing
– Research
Progress Choice Choice of :
– Not started
– In progress
– Completed
– Blocked
– Behind
Priority Choice Choice of:
– Critical
– High
– Medium
– Low
Start date Date and Time Date on which work was started
Due date Date and Time Due date by when work should be completed
Assigned to Person or Group Person or group the work is assigned to
Notes Multiple lines of text Additional notes
Created By Person or Group
Attachments Attachments
Modified By Person or Group

Views

  • All Items
  • Grouped by approval status

Content scheduler

Plan, schedule, and manage your content with this template. Filter down to just the items that are due soon, or get notifications when authors check in their drafts.

Content scheduler

Imagine using this when creating a blog post series with multiple guest authors, but you could also use this for issuing RFPs, responding to proposals, etc.

Columns

Column Type Comments
Content title Single line of text Required
Modified Date and Time
Created Date and Time
Description Multiple lines of text Describe the content in a few words
Status Choice Choice of:
– Planned
– Assigned
– Draft needs approval
– Ready to publish
– Published
Draft due by Date and Time Date when the draft is due
Publish by Date and Time Date when content should be published
Content type Choice Type of content being created –not SharePoint content-type
Choice of:
– Help article
– Blog post
– Video
– Social media post
Content image Thumbnail Image used in the content
Published link Hyperlink or Picture Link once the content is published
Author Person or Group
Modified By Person or Group
Content files Attachments Additional files, such as the text and additional images if more than one is used.

Conclusion

As you can see, Microsoft Lists are going to be useful, but they’re also going to be very familiar because they’re really your good old SharePoint lists, but made available outside of SharePoint.

I hope this helps?

For More Information

Updates

  • July 28, 2020: Minutes after posting this blog, people started reporting that Microsoft Lists is showing up on their tenants. Very exciting!
Author

Microsoft MVP and PnP Team Member. Independent consultant. Certified SCRUM Master. SharePoint, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 are his favourite toys.

4 Comments

  1. Rajkiran Swain Reply

    why i am not getting this option in my office 365 tenant ?

    • Hugo Bernier Reply

      The icon may not appear yet, but you can try the following workaround to see if Lists is available on your tenant:
      1. From your tenant, go to OneDrive. The URL should end with onedrive.aspx.
      2. In the URL, replace onedrive.aspx to lists.aspx

      Let us know if this works for you?

  2. Pingback: Working with rules in Microsoft Lists – Tahoe Ninjas

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