Columns are the basic building blocks of SharePoint and are part of every SharePoint List or Library application. Columns are used to store additional information (such as Department owner) about the document and provide the ability to sort, filter, and group our documents by these column values.
The following are a series of tutorials to walk you through how to create a dropdown using a lookup column, how to project additional columns, and how to create content type for a timesheet InfoPath form.
Creating a “Departments” Dropdown using a Lookup Column
A Lookup column is connected to a SharePoint list for its set of values. If a new department is added to the Departments list, the values in the connected lookup column are updated automatically. Using this approach provides SharePoint users with a consistent and relevant set of values. [tutorial]
Projecting Additional Columns from the Department List
Learn how to create additional columns in the Departments list from the previous tutorial. We will be creating two additional columns and then add values into the new columns for each department. We will then modify the Departments Lookup Column to “project” these new columns so that they are visible in the document library that we already configured to use the Departments column. [tutorial]
Creating a Content Type for the Timesheet InfoPath Form
A Content Type is a SharePoint object that contains columns that are used to describe a specific piece of content, such as a Timesheet entry. Out of the box content types include Document, Item, Event and Contact, for example. Content types can be created at various levels within a SharePoint site hierarchy including the Site Collection and Site level. The higher up the hierarchy the content type resides, the broader the scope in which it can be used. Since content types are objects, workflows can check for specific content types or create a workflow for a specific content type. [tutorial]
Eric is a SharePoint administrator, consultant, and instructor with over 28 years of technical experience in a number of industries and performing in a number of different SharePoint roles. He excels at providing real solutions to enhance, augment, and support business objectives instead of trying to change the business process to match the solution.
