Using Built-In List Templates | SharePoint 2010 Tutorial

Using Built-In List Templates

SharePoint provides a set of built-in list templates that you can start from and customize as needed. Tables 1 and 2 describe the list templates that come with SharePoint:
Table 1: Built-in list templates

Table 2: Additional list templates provided by MOSS

 As with site templates, it is a good idea to create one sample of each type of list in a gallery so site owners can browse. Then, as you create new custom lists you can add those to the gallery. It really helps users to see the available list types before creating their own.
When you create a new site, some lists are created automatically by the site template.
Figure 1 shows site created from the Team Site template which automatically includes Announcements, Calendar, Links, Tasks, and Discussion lists. See Chapter 3 for tables of what lists and libraries each site template includes.
Figure 1: Site templates automatically create some lists.

These new lists are empty to start with: list templates define the columns that the list will contain and the views of the list items that are displayed. The list items are provided by the users. Figure 2 shows the parts of a Links list.
Figure 2: The parts of a list.

Items are the rows of data in a list. Users add new items or change existing ones.
Columns define the types of data that a list contains. The Links list contains columns for a URL, Title, and Notes as well as a set of predefined columns that SharePoint uses such as ID, Created, Created By, and so on. Those predefined columns are usually not displayed. Columns are also called fields in the Microsoft documentation.
Views control what columns are displayed, how they appear, and what filters or grouping is applied to the rows. Views are similar to reports.