Update information at the speed of type: Edit in grid view
Published Feb 02 2021 08:00 AM 48.7K Views
Microsoft

The new Microsoft Lists grid view is now available worldwide, including SharePoint lists and libraries that share the same technology platform in Microsoft 365.

 

With simple, inline experiences, you can quickly update your information or add new items easily. Features like drag to fill, undo/redo, new field editors (text, date, people, yes/no, choice), and copy/paste make grid view the best place to get your information, quickly and organized.

 

We’ll cover all new features and capabilities below – including screenshots and links to learn more, starting here with an in-depth demo video I produced to showcase all the goodness our Lists engineers have been working on and refining:

 

 

Let's dive into the details...

 

The ‘Quick edit’ button is now ‘Edit in grid view’

Previously, when users bulk edited list items in a list or a document library, they select the Quick edit button in the top action bar. We are renaming Quick Edit to Edit in grid view.

 

The Quick Edit button for all lists and libraries in Microsoft 365 will be renamed “Edit in grid view” [bottom]; previously “Quick edit” [top].The Quick Edit button for all lists and libraries in Microsoft 365 will be renamed “Edit in grid view” [bottom]; previously “Quick edit” [top].

The newly named view provides an inline editing experience with lots of improvements, making it easy to quickly update list items in bulk within grid view. We’ll cover all of this beyond the button rename below.

And, if you love grid view, make it your default view. That's right, you can save a view in grid for any SharePoint list or document library. Note: when a user saves a view in Quick Edit, the list or document library will always render in quick edit for easy inline editing.

Edit with confidence, for those accidental ‘oops’ moments

As you work across rows and columns within Microsoft Lists, mistakes will happen, and it needs to be easy to recover information. Like how you can remove sentences and phrases in a Word document, you will be able to do this in Lists by using the undo button. The same is true in reverse if there was something in a field previously that you want to bring back - just click the redo button.

 

Click Undo or Redo to revert changes or remove mistakes within Microsoft Lists.Click Undo or Redo to revert changes or remove mistakes within Microsoft Lists.

Improved inline editing experience

The team has been working hard to improve the inline editing experience and release the new grid view. Our priority is providing the most effective inline editing experience by delivering new field editors and features designed to make editing data better than ever.

 

New inline field editors

Person

Items with a Person column can now be rendered using the new "pill" design format with a profile person’s photo also displayed. Select one or more people to add to a Person column quickly, and the entry will display an updated look. To turn this on, you can select “show profile picture” from the column setting.

 

Roadmap ID: 67095

person.png

 

Show profile photos.png

Choice

Items within a Choice column will support single, multi-choice, and manual fill as you add items. You'll see updated formatting right away and can update and remove choice fields and formatting selections previously applied.

 

Roadmap ID: 67095

pending nterview.png
Date and Time

The legacy calendar control is replaced with Office Fabric calendar for Gregorian calendars in SharePoint lists and libraries when filling or adjusting the date field. The new calendar experience is faster and delivers a coherent experience across throughout.

 

Roadmap ID: 63277

date and time.png
Yes/No

Items with a Yes/No column will appear with a check mark when the value is selected.

 

Roadmap ID: 67119

YN.png
Multi-line Rich text editor

When you turn on rich text editing in your multi-line text fields, you can now edit directly inline in grid.

 

Roadmap ID: (coming soon)

multiline text editor.png

 

Improvements to the overall editing experience throughout the grid

As you can see, what was ‘Quick edit’ is now Edit in grid view, and one of the biggest innovations is simply improving the speed and accuracy for how you input and update information. The grid itself is a feature, and we’ve spent a lot of time reviewing feedback and improving both technology and performance – to keep up with the speed at which you work AND not slow you down.

 

The new Quick Edit experience showing some of the innovation: updated grid lines, fixed row height, new selection, sticky first column, Add new button, visual cues and more.The new Quick Edit experience showing some of the innovation: updated grid lines, fixed row height, new selection, sticky first column, Add new button, visual cues and more.

Fixed row height | When in grid, you will see a new layout option “Fixed Height” within the view drop-down menu. This layout option will adjust the height of all rows to the same height to optimize vertical spacing.

row height.png

Sticky first column | Easily navigate you list with a sticky column. As you scroll horizontally across a list or documentary library in grid, the far-left column remains in place. You can see this in the main graphic of this section – the “Session name” column remains in place as you scroll to the right.

New Visuals | You'll see new grid lines, an improved on-hover experience when using your mouse around the grid, themed color bars on the side of list items - including error messaging, a “Create New Item” button at the bottom of quick edit for creating new items inline, and updated column header drop-down menus.

Selection | You will see an updated way for selecting single or multiple items. This, too, supports existing copy/paste and drag-to-fill, applicable to multiple rows when using shift + selection. And when navigating and interacting via keyboard keystrokes - like what we talked to John Sanders about - a consistent keyboard navigation approach.

Expanding the default grid view from 30 items to 100 | You will now see 100 items per page on SharePoint document library or list when using Quick Edit; aka, less need page through items - noting that many lists are greater than 30 items and less than 100 - a nice data-driven outcome based on real customer use.

Keyboarding consistency | When you edit in grid view, you will have a faster editing experience that adheres to greater levels of accessibility. Navigate across rows and columns using the tab key. Plus, pressing Enter enables you to edit that field. Clicking Enter on a new row saves the new item. And pressing the Esc key closes editor.

Visual and verbal read only field cues | Lists fields will show people when a field is edit-only and screen reader support when a field is read-only.

Configure your schema, aka – make lists your own especially when in grid view

You no longer need to leave inline editing to configure schema on your list – to do things like filter, sort, create new columns, hide columns, and save views… yep, do all that now directly from grid edit mode.

 

Create all column types directly from Quick Edit | You’ll be able to create all the same columns types when you need to start tracking additional information without have to leave Quick Edit.

Create all column types directly from Quick Edit.Create all column types directly from Quick Edit.

Learn more how to create all column types when in Edit in grid view mode.

 

Edit all columns directly from grid | The capabilities when in Lists "grid" view will now allow people to pin a column to the filter's pane, format the column, show/hide columns, and hide their column(s). You used to have to exit out of grid edit to accomplish these common tasks. Exit edit mode less – that’s the new motto.

Access list forms while editing in grid view

We have brought the form into grid view so you can easily view your content vertically or create new items. This is useful if certain columns are hidden from the view or you have lots of columns requiring horizontal scrolling.


View and edit items in forms inside of grid | Get full visibility on the whole of information per list or file item by viewing its form (instead of scrolling to the right on the row).

 

View and edit items in forms inside of Quick edit.View and edit items in forms inside of Quick edit.

“New” button on the command bar | Alongside adding a new row below the last, you can now click the New button to add a new item or file – the same “New” experience when not in Quick Edit.

Learn more about editing list items.

 

In summary…

So, go ahead, Edit in grid view. We know you’re going to like the depth of capability when in edit mode, including the performance and bulk capability improvements.


To learn more about lists, check out the additional resources:

Track what matters most. Make a list and let it flow.

 

Thanks for checking out the new grid view,

 

Miceile Barrett, senior program manager – Microsoft (@MSFTmiceile on Twitter)

23 Comments
Version history
Last update:
‎May 06 2021 11:44 AM
Updated by: