Getting to know Microsoft Lists9 min read

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.

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.

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

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.

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
Status	Choice	Status of the issue Choices include: – New (Default) – Blocked – In progress – Completed – Duplicate – By design – Won’t fix
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

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.

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
  

Event Itinerary

A great way to plan events.

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
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).

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.

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
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.

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.

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.

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

• Visit: https://aka.ms/microsoftlists

Updates

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