Microsoft Lists – evolving the value of SharePoint lists and beyond
Published May 19 2020 08:00 AM 112K Views
Microsoft

Today, we disclosed plans for Microsoft Lists (blog with full details) during day one of Build 2020.

 

We want to share the news and highlight how the SharePoint lists you know, and love, evolve. The key takeaway… Lists are lists are Lists … Microsoft Lists is an evolutionary jolt to SharePoint lists and beyond.

 

Your lists just got a whole lot smarter

Millions of SharePoint users have benefitted from using lists over the years. Microsoft Lists builds on this trusted information platform – bringing new user experiences and capabilities to the foundational innovation of SharePoint lists. Rest assured that all your lists, including lists that you have inside SharePoint sites today, will benefit from all the innovations described here. Lists are lists are lists. Additionally, the value of existing integrations with the Power Platform continue when you need to further customize list forms with Power Apps and design robust workflows with Power Automate. And for developers, the power and value of the Lists API extends custom solutions to connect the list data as a source via Microsoft Graph.

 

Take a first look at Microsoft Lists– product demo tour by @Miceile Barrett – Lists program manager at Microsoft: 

 

Microsoft Lists encompasses SharePoint lists, a new Lists home page (web), lists in Microsoft Teams and the coming Lists mobile app. There is only one Lists product and we continue to move it forward.

 

Microsoft Lists are stored in SharePoint sites and can be accessed from the new Lists home page, directly from the SharePoint team site (as shown here), or from within Microsoft Teams.Microsoft Lists are stored in SharePoint sites and can be accessed from the new Lists home page, directly from the SharePoint team site (as shown here), or from within Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Lists is a Microsoft 365 app that helps you track information and organize work. List are simple, smart, and flexible, so you can stay on top of what matters most to your team. Track issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory and more using customizable views and smart rules and alerts to keep everyone in sync. With ready-made templates, you can quickly start lists online, on our new mobile app, or with Microsoft Teams. And because it is part of Microsoft 365, you can rely on enterprise-ready security and compliance.

 

Podcast | Join @Miceile Barrett and @Lincoln DeMaris as they sit down with me and @Chris McNulty on The Intrazone at Build 2020 to share their first thoughts on Microsoft Lists. Enjoy the “Make a list and check it twice” episode:

 

 

A list showing "Gallery" view - each card represents a row of data.A list showing "Gallery" view - each card represents a row of data.

Note | If you have classic SharePoint lists in Microsoft 365 today, Microsoft continues to support them today and into the foreseeable future be that they were built for legacy applications or have custom-built extensions - they will continue to work. And when you choose to move them from classic to modern – they then not only “get modern,” – they will get all the value and innovation Microsoft Lists brings.

 

We cannot wait to share more details and documentation when we begin roll out later this summer, and the Lists mobile app coming later this year.

 

Resources to learn more about Microsoft Lists:

 

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

 

Thanks, Mark Kashman – senior product manager, Microsoft

 

48 Comments
Steel Contributor

This will give a major boost to list!!

@Mark Kashman , will we be able to save list as template and keep all the logic and formatting rules in the template? Will we be able to save the template into a site or it needs to be into my OneDrive site collection (Looking at the process of creating a new list, it looks like the templates are stored in my OneDrive site collection)?

Looking at the demo, will we be able to select any sites to create a new list (Looks like I will only be able to select only from recent sites).

Any info in which quarter it should be available?

 

Great work!

Thanks.

Brass Contributor

Love the idea, excited for the tech, lukewarm on the name. I miss the days when MSFT product names were more abstract - Word, Excel, InfoPath, and SharePoint, for example.

 

Now we’ll have Microsoft Lists lists inside Microsoft Teams teams.

 

Overall my excitement is high, though. I adore SP lists and this seems like a great logical extension.

Iron Contributor

@Mark Kashman This is lists as we always wanted it. Can't wait to work with it! Would love to see a demo how it behaves inside SharePoint online.

When will it be available in SharePoint?

Iron Contributor

@Mark Kashman@Miceile Barrett , @Lincoln DeMaris @Chris McNulty love this - from a user standpoint, and as a Global Admin also love that it is an extension and a very easy way to drive adoption of "SharePoint Lists" for new user. BUT...couple of important questions. 

 

  1. Where are "My Lists" stored? - @Mark Kashman saw this in one of you responses on the announcement, OneDrive location - but can you provide specifics about how they are managed? Like as admins, how do we see/get to them? 
  2. Will the mobile app support Azure Conditional Access out of the Box?
  3. Will the "Lists" app be audited differently?
  4. Will DLP and AIP be supported?
  5. Can the lists be "Migrated" to new locations? - Example a "My List" to a SharePoint Site?
Iron Contributor

@Mark Kashman  This is a very exciting announcement and has great digital transformation potential. 

One thing I'm wondering is what impacts there will be for Events lists, which currently still have a 'classic' backend.

Copper Contributor

This is great news. SharePoint lists are very useful. With the new features and improvements that Microsoft are bringing into lists, are there going to be improvements to overcome one of the known limitations in lists which is ListView threshold please?

Iron Contributor

@Mark Kashman @Miceile Barrett   

I wonder:

Following up on the question for a demo of lists in SharePoint this question popped up;

 

When you open a list in Microsoft Teams, will it use the same SharePoint site as used in Files?

Brass Contributor

Thanks @Mark Kashman and @Miceile Barrett - this looks really good!

I've been working in IT for long enough to see Microsoft first bring everything together into SharePoint (lists, surveys, etc) and now, over the past few years, "disintegrate" it back again (eg Lists, Forms, etc); this is the latest manifestation of that.

I note that "My Lists" are stored in a user's OneDrive.

Will Microsoft Lists be part of all Microsoft 365 plans [that include OneDrive]? E1|A1? E3|A3? E5|E5? 

Will Lists follow Forms in the freemium model? Starting off as an "included" product for no additional cost, but evolve to become multiple editions with more capable editions becoming separately chargeable SKUs?

Can you provide some guidance on the lifecycle of "My Lists"?  Let me explain...

  1. Alice starts at Contoso.
  2. Contoso has lots of semi-structured data spread across post-it notes, emails, chat, spreadsheets, etc.  That's what they do at Contoso.
  3. Alice sees @Miceile Barrett video, and is inspired! Alice creates a Lists list in "My Lists" [stored in her personal OneDrive]
  4. Alice shares it with Bob.  Bob loves it!  Alice's list is shared with everyone and everyone now uses it.  Finally - order where there was chaos.

Contoso now depends on Alice's list.

 

Now,

  • it's no longer "just" Alice's list; Annie has some ideas, and enriches the list.
  • arguably, it should no longer be in Alice's OneDrive; it should be in an organisational location, such as a SharePoint site, or a Teams team
    • is that possible? how?  In SharePoint, it used to be pretty primitive; you could save a list as a template, then create a new list based on the template, losing important parts in the transition
  • Alice posts her story on LinkedIn.  Woodgrove Bank sees her post and like what they see.  Woodgrove Bank offer her a job with a big pay rise.  Alice accepts; congratulations Alice!
    • but what happens at Contoso?  Alice had actually created many different and important lists in "My Lists" and shared them across the organisation.
    • Wally works at Contoso IT.  He's been notified Alice is leaving, so deletes her account
    • Contoso grinds to a halt - Alice's lists have disappeared!

How can Wally delete any user account anymore, knowing it could contain any number of business-critical Microsoft Lists lists in them?  

 

Even if Wally knows a user does have one or more Microsoft Lists lists, what can he do about them?

 

Alice created multiple lists; some are critical to Contoso.  But some are more personal;

  • her weekly grocery shopping, which she buys on her way home from work
  • Alice arranged a work pot-luck; people contributed what they were bringing
  • etc

Is this a data governance and identity lifecycle nightmare, or does Microsoft have a best practice here?  Is it a chargeable extra?  Is it simply to recover a deleted user?  Then what? Alice's resurrected account needs a [chargeable] OneDrive license to keep the Microsoft Lists lists in OneDrive.

 

Will Microsoft provide administrative controls so that "My Lists" can be disabled, so this scenario cannot arise?  It's a real shame to do this; it potentially stymies "citizen developers" from solving problems locally; but what choice does an organisation that values its data but can't afford an infinite number of licences have?

 

PS this comment may sound negative; perhaps it is!  I think Microsoft Lists sounds great!  But I still need answers to these concerns

Brass Contributor

Please can you make the hyperlink column type accommodate any URL, not just web addresses?

 

For example, my organisation uses Configuration Manager.  Configuration Manger provides Software Center, and applications in Software Center offer a "share" button; here's what's behind that "share" button for an app I use;

 

softwarecenter:SoftwareID=ScopeId_3B3F076E-EDBD-44B0-81EA-F1958D42C503/Application_185a28f5-a549-4d85-946b-b1f29abdf6fd

 

A while back, I wanted to create a [modern] list of applications.  I would have liked a link that would actually install that application [if your computer had Configuration Manager client].  It worked! For a few seconds.  Then, something somewhere converted it into a http: link.  Which doesn't work.  So disappointing!

 

Similarly, if you have OneNote installed, it installs an protocol handler for the onenote:  URL protocol.  I might want to create a link to a OneNote notebook that opens in OneNote, not a browser.  I can't do that today with Microsoft Lists.

 

The roadmap is envisages a mobile app; which is great!  Being able to handle diverse protocols really comes into its own here; some very basic examples:

 

mailto:wilma.flintstone@bedrock.com

...would open a new message

 

sip:wilma.flintstone@bedrock.com

...would open a new chat

 

tel:+15551234567

...would open the dialler

 

linkedin:wilma.flintstone@bedrock.com

...might open Wilma's profile in the LinkedIn app

 

I appreciate that URL protocols are practically infinite.  That makes error handling practically impossible.  But they have a place, and they are useful!

Brass Contributor

Hi @Mark Kashman - Thanks for this article providing updated details for this. This is so exciting as we've been trying to switch our project tracking list from Excel to SharePoint Lists with Power Apps customized form (so people can submit a request and it gets automatically added into the list, and allows them to track their own requests as well). The experience with SharePoint Lists + Power Apps is not that great yet as users have been saying it's not easy to see the '+ New' button in SharePoint Lists and the Power Apps customized form appears very small on certain screens because it doesn't fill the full height of the SharePoint window (I'm guessing this is a bug because the app height cannot be set to 100%). 

I see in the screenshots from the other article that the New button is actually a button that stands out now, so that's definitely much better!  :)
I hope the issue with Power Apps custom forms height gets fixed as well.
But this looks so much better, maybe in our case we won't even need Power Apps anymore since it's just a simple request form and request tracking. 

Copper Contributor

Hi @Mark Kashman
Firstly I've got say, Lists will be a fantastic addition to the Teams environment.
A quick question, I'm assuming it is built up on Sharepoint Lists, so i'm also assuming that we'll be able to use the Sharepoint Lists provider in Power BI to pull the Lists data into PowerBI, is that correct? 

Thanks, Angus

 

Microsoft

Hi @Martin Coupal - we will offer first party templates at first release, and have it on our backlog to enable custom templating in the future. We'll have more to share at Ignite later this year in this space. And yes, you decide where to save your list - in your personal storage or a team site. - Mark 

Microsoft

Hi @John Mannion - thanks for sharing. For app that are a part of the overall Microsoft 365 portfolio, we do err on descriptive rather than suggestive. And with our history of SharePoint lists as where we evolve from - things began to line up. Great to see your excited excitement ;). - Mark 

Microsoft

Hi Andre @ NL Salomons - it will behave as you saw it in Miceile's demo - same create control in SharePoint, Teams and Lists home when the new tech begins to roll out. We will takeover today's control, bringing forward the ability to start from scratch, import from Excel, create a list from another existing list, and of course- the coming templates. The good news is that SharePoint gets all the new tech when we roll out in the summer. It's a tier 1 entry point to create and use lists, as it is today, and the goodness lands there first. And know that existing lists get the new tech, too. Summer is just around the corner. - Mark

Microsoft

Hi @Rob Bowman - answers to your Qs; and glad you're excited.

  1. Where are "My Lists" stored? MK: Personal lists are stored in your personal storage, vis-à-vis OneDrive; with admin controls similar in nature for ownership of the individual with the ability to govern from IT. 
  2. Will the mobile app support Azure Conditional Access out of the Box? MK: I don't know this. See if @Miceile Barrett can help track it down.
  3. Will the "Lists" app be audited differently? MK: No. Lists fall inline with SharePoint governance and eDiscovery. 
  4. Will DLP and AIP be supported? MK: Seeing if my peer @Sesha can help with this one.
  5. Can the lists be "Migrated" to new locations? - Example a "My List" to a SharePoint Site? MK: we're reviewing this scenario. We want to enable like moving files, though at this time we're most focused on starting the list in the "right" place, knowing it can be explicitly shared with others no matter the location.
Microsoft

Hi @Jenny Bruce - any classic list will continue to be support now and into the foreseeable future. And we are bringing a new "Event itinerary" template to market as a part of the Microsoft Lists update to existing lists. So, no impact to event lists backed by classic SharePoint list tech. And new event lists created on the modern stack, that will include the new tech, will have full capabilities beyond classic. - Mark 

Microsoft

Hi @gireeshn - when the Microsoft Lists update hits, nothing will change with scale or limits. That said, we're doing a lot of perf work, and all known limits are continuously reviewed per feedback and thresholds as backend infra changes are made to the SharePoint platform holistically. - Mark 

Microsoft

Hi Andre @ NL Salomons - yes, when you open a list in Microsoft Teams, it uses the same SharePoint site as used in Files. You, too, can bring in others lists from other teams/sites barring permissions for members are same. - Mark 

Microsoft

Hi @Angus_Booker - correct. :)

Iron Contributor

Hi @Mark Kashman; thanks for your replies. Another question came to mind this week.

Will lists have the same capability as libraries; to copy or move items from list to list, when same permissions apply?

Iron Contributor

@Mark Kashman hi Mark, somebody asked further up the comments about whether it'll be in a1\e1 a3\e3 a5\e5? 

Presumably yes if tightly part of SharePoint? Any difference in 'lists' features between the bundles? Thanks

Copper Contributor

@Mark Kashman  can I migrate my existing SharePoint lists and power automate flows for that list into MS lists without huge lift and shift?

Copper Contributor

Thanks @Mark Kashman and @Miceile Barrett - this looks exciting!

 

How can I use Microsoft Lists now as it would be ahead of the curve?

 

Thanks Nick

Copper Contributor

This Looks awesome! It scares me a Little though because I've built an extensive QM architechture based on SharePoint list, most interconnected with one another and governed with flows. The most important ones feature content types. which is really important to me. Will these new lists also allow management of content types and all of the options for fine-tuning as the existing SharePoint lists?

Regards

Till

 

Copper Contributor

We keep one Teams Site per customer that we interact with, which makes the amount of Teams sites grow very big. It helps a lot in our productivity and enables coherent customer interactions.

For that reason it would be great to have an "overview Teams" that contains a list of all our Teams site with status of those Teams etc. Is there any such use case described somewhere already.

Does someone have a solution to list all Teams sites, maybe filter them etc?

Do you think this new Lists feature could be used for this purpose? How would you approach it?

Copper Contributor

I manage a SharePoint list with over 1000 records using a Microsoft Access connection through External Data > More > SharePoint List. Will this same connectivity be available through Access to Lists?

Copper Contributor

Maybe I missed it, I didn't see a response to @anwarmahmood2380 's scenario. @Mark Kashman , is there a way to disable the "My Lists" option when creating lists?  I have the same concern if a staff person creates a critical list used by a department, that person leaves the company, then their OneDrive is deleted per the standard process.  

 

Brass Contributor

Do Lists integrate with To-Do/Planner tasks at all (or are there plans for this)?

 

Lists seem like a much better way to organize tasks because you can add custom categories....but it does not appear that there's a way to flow tasks from Lists into the new Tasks app in Teams that shows all your tasks from various apps. This would be huge! 

 

Please let me know if I've missed it or if this is in the works!

Microsoft

Hi @lindsayS_TR - yes, this is something we are investigating. What we shared at Ignite is the coming ability to @mention someone in a Lists comment. With that in place soon, we then explore the ability to use @mention in comments to tag someone for feedback (like you can today in Word for the web). We don't have timing to share, but the pattern we'd like to offer is: List item > add comment > @mention a colleague > assign as a task; this then would bring Lists into the flow of Planner and/or To Do as they aggregate personal and team tasks accordingly. - Mark 

Microsoft

Hi @Eric Tamez - you can review current Lists admin controls here, "Control settings for Microsoft Lists."

 

This primarily focuses on:

  • Manage who can create personal lists
  • Manage built-in templates that aren't relevant for your organization

Thanks, Mark 

 

Microsoft

Andre @ NL Salomons - it is under review how we can enable movement of lists from personal > team, team > team, and other scenarios. Nothing to communicate beyond this at this time. It's an important feature we've heard a number of people request. Thanks, Mark

Microsoft

@DazzaR - Lists is available through Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription plans where SharePoint is included. Learn more about Microsoft 365 business plans. And there is no feature difference across plans/SKUs. - Mark 

Microsoft

@Alex Balcanquall - there is no need to migrate or move existing SharePoint lists. All existing lists will get new capabilities, and it's the same platform so existing lists remain intact, in place, as they were (data and features - incl. Power Platform extension work). - Mark 

Microsoft

@tillspehr - nothing will change to your existing list, and what you could do in the past carries forward - with new innovation for all lists. It's all the same platform, SharePoint, and we build off of it intact, in place, with new entry points and capabilities. Thanks, Mark 

Microsoft

@Peter_Duray-Bito - we don't have this capability out-of-the-box, and I'll provide the feedback to the team to review import from Access > MS Lists. I'm not an expert in this space, but looking at what Access offers, you can try this flow: In Access, open the database you want to import > click the External data tab > within More drop-down menu > choose SharePoint List. I'm sure others know better and certainly a web search might make it more concrete with a 'how to' article out there. Thanks, Mark 

Copper Contributor

Great new interface!  I see that a List created and stored in "My Lists" has all the List features, including ratings.  Is there a way to display that List on a Communication site?

Microsoft

Hi @JeffGrossman - I don't believe so. If the list resides within the communication site, then yes, you can then use the List web part to put the list on the page and choose your desired view. However, a list from your "My lists" won't show up, and we don't have a way to program the List web part with the list's base URL. I'll pass this along as feedback. You can export your list from My lists to an Excel file, and then use that to Create a list from Excel within the comm site as a new list... if that workaround helps. - Mark 

Copper Contributor

Lists is great but I'm having trouble finding it's address in my Teams Site I have saved it to. I'm looking to get a MS Form to auto populate my list using Power Automate but I can't see where it is in the SharePoint address. Am I trying to do something it can't do please?

Iron Contributor

I have discovered bugs in lists related to configuring lay out.

Pretty annoying!

How can I fwd it to Microsoft as Uservoice is  discontinued?

Silver Contributor

Andre @ NL Salomons  why do you think uservoice is discontinued?  https://sharepoint.uservoice.com/forums/329214-sites-and-collaboration

 

Rob
Los Gallardos
Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User

Iron Contributor

@RobElliott 

UserVoice Pages (microsoft.com)

Microsoft has partnered with UserVoice, a third-party service, to communicate with customers and collect feedback. We will be moving away from UserVoice feedback sites throughout the 2021 calendar year on a product-by-product basis. We will leverage 1st party solutions. Customers can continue to communicate with Microsoft and provide feedback through a number of different channels.

Brass Contributor

There is a bug in the search function in lists.microsoft.com, where clicking on a search result opens the result in a new "Sharepoint" window rather than in a "Lists" branded window. The search procedure is documented here, but it fails to mention this poor functionality.

 

This is pathetic functionality and is very confusing for end users.  The Lists / Sharepoint UI constantly changes depending on the number of results being returned, and sometimes you end up on a screen that appears like it is Sharepoint 2010!

 

Why is this product still so unfinished when it was building upon a product you already had?  Almost a year later and still no promised Android Lists app either.

 

Because of the slowness and limitations of Microsoft Lists, my company is now considering a move to AirTable, which I would love to discourage, but in it's current state Microsoft Lists doesn't cut it.

Microsoft

Hi @ST-Ken. I've repo'ed your search feedback and sent it to our program management team to consider as future updates to refine the experience. They have made a lot of progress on modernizing lists, adding new entry points and improving performance and offline (coming soon; ref. "Project Nucleus" - Lists offline and performance improvements). If you'd not seen this article, "Top 10 hidden gems: Microsoft Lists" - it provides a good look at recent innovation as we continue to improve the user experience and update how you work on and share information across SharePoint, Teams, on mobile, and Web. You can track Lists for Android here on the public roadmap. The team is making progress and learning from iOS use in parallel. Last, our most recent disclosures, "What’s new for Microsoft Lists - Ignite 2021 [Spring] announcements."

Thanks for your feedback, Mark 

Brass Contributor

Hi @Mark Kashman, I appreciate the time you've taken to respond to my comments.  And thank you for passing on the frustrations with the experience we encounter.  I am glad that Microsoft has ventured into making Lists a standalone app, and expanded the capabilities, especially with the advent of competing products (such as Airtable that staff are aware of) and it is a battle to keep them from straying outside of the corporate environment with these tools.

Having said this, I still believe that Lists on a PC (whether using it in a browser or as a PWA) is a half-baked experience.  The chopping and changing of UI between:

  • browsing a list,
  • filtering a list,
  • editing a column,
  • editing a list record,
  • and searching records and viewing a search result

is jarring as it switches between modern and classic forms, fonts and page headers.  Nothing "seems" cohesive to the end user.

Again, like many of Microsoft's latest improvements to apps have been targeted at the Mac and iOS market, rather than the corporate PC or browser experience, where the result is poor UX.

 

Nevertheless, as mentioned previously, I am glad Microsft is making the effort, and I look forward to my feedback being incorporated into the Lists UX.


Thanks again, Ken.

Iron Contributor

@Mark Kashman - great to see that community feedback on this blog post is being passed through to development backlog. 

I'd like to provide some feedback about the the rich text editor for the multi-line column type.  It is completely different to the rich text editor used in the text web part used on pages, which results in incorrect font styling when list items are embedded on a SharePoint page. 

At present our options are to switch into classic mode to 'fix' the html by adding inline styling or through applying JSON .  Neither of these options are ideal for our front-end authors who have little to know coding knowledge - and we don't expect them to. 

I'm therefore sending a heartfelt plea for Microsoft to change the rich text editor for the multi-line text field in lists so that it is the same as the one used for page web parts.

Best regards

Jenny

Microsoft

Hi @Jenny Bruce - thanks for the callout. Looping in @Miceile Barrett (lists) & @Rachel Lambert (pages) who are closest respectively across your feedback. Thanks, Mark 

Brass Contributor

The gallery view for lists is great, however searching for items in a gallery view is not ideal. When making a gallery the "default view" of a list, Search should respect that default and deliver the user a gallery view of the results. Instead, the search results are delivered in a list view, which is not what you would expect.

Steel Contributor

@Mark Kashman ,

 

Is there a way to get usage statistics of Lists? We created a few but don't know if they are used.

 

Thanks,

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