Allow Multiple Selections
The Allow Multiple Selections configuration
option lets you define whether the column will allow users to choose
more than one user in this column.
Allow Selection Of
The Allow Selection Of configuration option
defines whether the user will be able to choose only people (other
users) or also groups. If you want groups to be selectable, you must
change this option.
Choose From
In the Choose From configuration option, you
specify what users and groups appear to the user to pick from. By
default, this option is set to All Users, which enables the user to
choose from the list of all the users that SharePoint recognizes, even
users who do not have access to the current site or list. The second
option, SharePoint Group, limits the selection to users in a specific
security group in the current site or site collection. This option is
useful if you want to let users select from a restricted list of users,
in which case you should create a security group and set the column to
show only users from that group.
Show Field
In the Show Field configuration setting, you
define what will be displayed as the selected value when a user views
the list item or file properties. The default is the name of the user
who was selected, together with that user’s presence information
(whether that user is online or busy, for example; this requires that
special instant messaging software be installed and configured on the
user’s machine). You can change this option to display other information
about the selected user.
Hyperlink or Picture
The Hyperlink or Picture column type enables
users to enter data that will be displayed as either a link or a picture
when the value is viewed (see Figure 24).
You should choose this column type when you want users to freely type a
link to a web page (in SharePoint or otherwise) or to a picture.
FIGURE 24 The user interface for entering data into a Hyperlink or Picture column type.
The only setting to set on a Hyperlink or
Picture column type, Format URL As, determines how to format the link
that the user types when viewing the list item’s or file’s properties.
The first option is to format it as a hyperlink, which displays the
title that the user chose as a link to the page the user chose. The
second option is to format as a picture, which shows the picture to which the user typed the link instead of showing the link itself.
Regardless of what settings you choose, the
user interface looks the same: The user is asked to enter a URL path and
a title (refer to Figure 24). However, when you’re looking at list views and viewing the properties of a list item or file, the difference is apparent. As Figure 25
shows, the same information is shown in two columns of type Hyperlink
or Picture, one formatting the information as a link and the other
formatting the information as a picture.
FIGURE 25 A view showing one column
configured to show the data the user typed as a picture and another
column configured to show the data the user typed as a hyperlink.
Calculated (Calculation Based on Other Columns)
A Calculated column type does not allow the
user to enter data in it; it is used only to show data based on a
calculation of other columns. For example, if you want a Full Name
column that displays information automatically based on the First Name
and Last Name columns, you can create a Calculated column that
concatenates the values in those two columns.
As another example, say that you have a list
of orders that has a column for the number of products ordered and
another column for the price for a single product. The Calculated column
can display the total revenue for the order by multiplying the numbers
in the two columns.
The configuration options for this column type
include a special formula builder control that enables you to specify
the calculation required for the column, as shown in Figure 26.
FIGURE 26 The configuration options for a
Calculated column type. The formula in this figure concatenates two
columns and a piece of text.
Formula
In the Formula text box, you can define the calculation that will be performed .
You can select the columns on which you want to perform a calculation
from the list on the right and click Add to Formula to add a reference
to that column in the formula.
For example, to concatenate two text columns,
you add the two columns from the list and use the ampersand (&)
character to connect them. You can also add a piece of text in quotation
marks. The value is automatically displayed everywhere, including in
list views and views showing the list item’s or file’s details.
The Data Type
The second option you need to configure for
the Calculated column type is the data type that will be used for the
calculation. You select the appropriate data type that matches the data
type of the columns for which you are performing an operation.
Performing an operation on columns of different types is possible. For
example, you can multiply the value in a Number column by the value in a
Currency column, but you must decide how the result of the operation
will be displayed—either as a number or as currency.
Rating Scale
The Rating Scale column type is available only
in surveys. You use it when you want the user to rate several items in a
Likert scale control. It’s like asking many questions in
one column, where the answer for each question is a number. These
questions are referred to as the sub-questions of the column.
For example, you might want to gather input on
user satisfaction on several aspects of a service, or you might want to
know how strongly users agree with certain statements about different
aspects of a book (see Figure 27).
FIGURE 27 The Rating Scale column data entry user interface.
The Rating Scale column type is useful in
surveys where you want to assess how users feel about multiple subjects.
It gives the user an interface for easily answering many questions
quickly. You can configure this column to specify what questions will be
included, what ratings the user can choose, and what the values mean. Figure 28 shows the configuration page for this column type.
FIGURE 28 The configuration page for the Rating Scale column type.
