Don't email me an Excel Spreadsheet

To often people send me an email with an excel document attached. Then ask to update it, I send it back, and then they look for additional edits and before you know it there are multiple versions floating around.  I'm sure this has happened to you. While it isn't the answer for every spreadsheet, in most case I just want to tell them to put it in SharePoint and create a list!

• Import Spreadsheet option: An often overlooked perk of SharePoint is the import spreadsheet option for creating a list. Sometimes I'll start creating a spreadsheet and then pull it into SharePoint, or just start a list from scratch or even export a previous list and use as a template. Starting with Excel does give you a little flexibility if you don't know exactly how you want to layout your columns and fields. You can even use the Excel spreadsheet for a few days then import it because SharePoint will use the field data as potential drops.  Importing is easy:

1. Go to Site Settings > Create 
2. Under Custom Lists > Import spreadsheet
3. Name you list, browse to your existing spreadsheet, and click import. 
4. Excel will launch with "Import to Windows SharePoint Services list" (See image at right.)
5. Change the Range Type to "Range of Cells:" 
6. Place cursor on "Select Range:" then place your cursor on the little box above row 1 and to the left of column A.  This will highlight the sheet.
7. Click Import and your list will now appear in SharePoint.
8. In the new list, go to Settings > List Settings to tweak field columns or change version and advanced settings.

Now that you have the list created you can use jquery to create pie charts , use the Export to Spreadsheet feature, or improve your list with calculated fields or coloring.  A SharePoint list doesn't replace spreadsheets, especially those with with heavy calculations or macros, but for 80% of spreadsheets this could be a great improvement allow for multiple users to access. Bottom-line is list are not just for Tasks, Action items or project related data and it is all out of the box.

How do you use lists?