Microsoft Lists is an Office 365 organizational tool that is part of Rutgers Connect, which helps you keep track of issues, requests, information, events, work-related items, and more. It comes with several preset templates to help you get started. To visualize your information better, Lists also provides you with customizable views, smart rules, and synced sharing. Create, collaborate, share, and view all of your lists in one place via the Lists application in your Rutgers Connect waffle menu.
Getting started
To get started, after logging in to Rutgers Connect, click the Lists icon within the Rutgers Connect app launcher (aka, the “waffle” menu).
Here, you can start a list either from scratch or by using a ready-made template. Learn more about each template here. You can even create new lists from existing lists or by importing Excel table data.
After creating a list, you will see all your favorite and recent lists – ones you own or that have been shared with you. You will be able to create both personal lists you own and can share, and team lists owned by members of your teams.
Microsoft Teams is directly integrated with Lists. You can either add an existing list to a Teams channel or create a new list directly in Teams and chat on individual list items, combining lists with side-by-side conversations. When you click + to add a new tab to a Teams channel, select the Lists app to begin.
The Lists app is used to both create new and embed existing lists. You can further refine your list by adding new columns and defining choices in a drop-down menu. Create, view, or edit share links, create custom views and filters, and set up rules – all to ensure the list works for you and your team. You get the full power to configure what your list looks like and how it works for you right from within Teams.
Every list you create is stored in SharePoint. You can directly access or share your List right from your personal, or your team’s, SharePoint site. The default view in the Microsoft Lists application may even look familiar to many SharePoint users as the feature is designed to be an innovative experience for SharePoint lists. List configuration and changes can be made directly from SharePoint.
Customize your list
Microsoft Lists provides many ways to customize and utilize the lists you create. There are four main views when configuring lists: list, grid, gallery, and calendar. Grid view is the primary style you will see when you first create a list, while gallery view highlights lists that include images. Calendar view will showcase any list or item with a date associated with it.
You can adjust how information appears in these views by using conditional formatting, where background, font color, and icons dynamically change when certain criteria are met. Choose people, status, and value changes to send notifications and make updates. You can even create custom views to organize and showcase items that are most important to you or your team through filtering, sorting, or styling. Create personal views that only you can see or public views for shared lists.
Once you’ve created your lists and configured your view to your liking, you can take your list a step further with added automation. You can build custom productivity apps using lists as the data source. Under the Automate section, you’ll find that you can setup Flows that work with your Lists. Fully integrated with Microsoft 365, Lists works seamlessly with other apps, such as Excel, SharePoint, Power Apps (custom forms), Power Automate, and Power BI.
Sharing
When you share a list, you can share the entire list with edit or read-only permissions. Or share individual items, where you allow or disable the ability to edit, set an expiration date, or require a password before granting access. And once shared, invitees can add comments on the full list or on individual list items.
Learn more
Microsoft offers many videos and courses that can help you fully utilize your lists.