How to Create a View in SharePoint Online? Efficiently

No doubt, SharePoint offers several prime features that accelerate the organization’s productivity. Apart from its enormous features, the SharePoint views option more than others. This feature helps to maintain data privacy while SharePoint sites are accessed by external users. If you are curious about how to create a view in SharePoint Online. Then by the end of this write-up, you will become an expert at creating views in SharePoint document libraries or lists.

So, let’s get started.

Overview of Views in SharePoint

A SharePoint view is a customized display of data from a SharePoint document library or list. The SharePoint views allow users to sort, modify, organize, or filter the data as per the specific requirements. It enhances the chances of extracting the essential insights within a shorter period. Views also put the original data on the safer side to maintain its originality.

Benefits of Creating Views in SharePoint Online

Let’s discuss some major advantages of creating and managing the SharePoint views.

1. Preserves SharePoint Information Originality

There are different SharePoint Online permissions to manage the data efficiently. But sometimes you need to enable access to the crucial information to the external users as well. But using SharePoint views, you can save the original information by creating and assigning views to the users.

2. Data Filtering

The SharePoint document libraries and lists store several columns to manage large data. But there might be situations where you need to access only a few columns. In that case, you can use the SharePoint views to incorporate the required columns only.

3. Information Presentation

SharePoint views are not only limited to one or two types of views. You can use the multiple types of views to represent the information in a well-mannered.

4. Enhanced Collaboration

These SharePoint views can also be shared with the Team members. Using these views, every team member can perform their actions and it will also reflect to the other users.

Types of SharePoint Views

SharePoint offers multiple types of views to showcase the required data. It provides a Standard view, datasheet, calendar, Gantt, and gallery view. Users can choose the desired view to display the information. Let’s dive deep into them. 

1. Standard View –  This is the default view available in SharePoint. It displays the SharePoint list or library data in a table format. In this view, each row represents an item and each column shows the attribute of that item. It helps to analyze the huge data. Although, users can not edit this view but columns can customized as per requirement. 
2. Datasheet View – Datasheet view is also referred as the quick edit view. It allows user to edit the complete data. This is widely used to perform bulk editing. Users can also use the drag-and-drop feature of the tool to enhance their productivity. 
3. Calendar View – This view shows the lists and library data in the Calendar format. This is the best way to manage events, deadlines, or schedules. It helps to track the timelines for the particular events. Users can also use color coding for overlaying multiple calendars. 
4. Gantt View – This view is highly used in the organizations. Most of the users incorporate this view to track the project deadlines. It is a perfect way to track the overall progress of the tasks. It shows the statuses from the beginning till the end. 
5. Gallery View – The gallery view displays the items in the format of cards or tiles. This type of view is the best one for showing product catalogs. The card views are adjustable and easily fit the screen size and their resolutions. 

How to Create a View in SharePoint Online?

Although there are different types of SharePoint views, it includes a standard view, datasheet, Gantt, calendar, and gallery view. All of these can be created with the same steps. There are numerous approaches to create views in SharePoint Online.  Let’s deep-dive into all of them sequentially.

1. Create a View Using All Items

Execute the below steps to create a view in SharePoint Online using the All items option.

Step 1. Open SharePoint and move to the desired document library or list whose view will be created.
Step 2. Click on the All items option from the above right corner.
Step 3. Choose the Create new view option from the drop-down.
Step 4. Now in the opened pop-up, provide the name of the View, Select List in the show as an option, and tick the checkbox of Visibility to make it public.
Step 5. Finally, hit the Create button.

2. How to Create a View in SharePoint Online Using Filters Option?

Another way of creating a view in SharePoint Online.

1. After going to the SharePoint lists, hit the Filters option.
2. Select the website to create its view.
3. Now, you can see the list view with all the fields.
4. Click on the drop-down of New Post View.
5. Choose the Save view as an option.
6. Assign the name to the view and select visibility then Save.

3. How to Create a View in SharePoint Online Using PnP PowerShell?

Follow the below PnP PowerShell commands to create a list view in SharePoint Online.

$SPOSite_URL = "enter the Site URL here"
$List_Name= "SalesProject"
$New_View_Name= "Sales_Projects_View"
$View_Fields = @("Project_ID", "Title","Project_Status")
$Add_Query = "Active"

$Cred = Get-Credential

Try {
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SPOSite_URL -Credentials $Cred

Add-PnPView -List $List_Name -Title $New_View_Name -ViewType Html -Fields $View_Fields -Query $Add_Query -ErrorAction Stop
Write-host " A new View '$ViewName' has been created successfully!" -f Green
}
catch {
write-host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)" -foregroundcolor Yellow
}

How to Edit Views in SharePoint Online?

To edit the views in SharePoint, follow the below steps.

1. Open the View and then New Post View > Edit current View.
2. Navigate to the Filter section.
3. Set the filters as per requirement and then OK.
4. You can also modify the columns such as the selection of columns in the view, their positioning, etc.

How to Delete a SharePoint View?

If the view is no longer required or you do not want to face SharePoint Online storage quota exceeded error. Then you can delete that SharePoint view with some quick steps.

1. Open the SharePoint view that you want to delete.

2. Click on the Edit current view option.

3. From the edit view page, hit the Delete option.

4. Now, click on the OK button in the opened pop-up to delete the SharePoint view.

Conclusion

In this write-up, we have discussed how to create a view in SharePoint Online. Both of the methods are explained in a detailed manner. Now, you can use any of the methods according to your expertise.