SharePoint Stuff

In this post we take a look at the board view available for Microsoft/ SharePoint Lists, how to configure it, limitations are more.

Intro

Board view was introduced into Microsoft/ SharePoint Lists in January 2022 and offered a way to view list items in a board with swim lanes that represent their current progress – similar to a Kanban board. The view also allows users to drag & drop items within the board view, as well as configure columns to be displayed within the cards.

How to create a board view

Creating a new board view is really easy, as it’s an available option from the view menu for any list/ library:

• Open your list or library
• Open the view drop-down list > select create new view

• Give your view a new name
• Under show as > select board
• Under organize board by > select the column you want to organize the swim lanes by
• Press create

💡 Note: If you want your view to be visible by everyone who has access to the list, ensure “make this a public view” is selected.

The board view will now be created and you can start configuring it. You will also be prompted to set up a “due date reminder” flow, which you can choose to enable, do later, or not add.

Current limitations/ things to note

#1 Organize by limitations

You will at this point have noticed that there is a limited selected of columns you are able to organize your board by. This is the first major limitation of the board view, you are only able to organize by the following types of columns:

• Yes/ no
• Choice

#2 No sort/ filter features

Another issue with the current board functionality is that there is no obvious way to sort or filter your data from within the board view. To do this you have to access the classic list settings, open the view in classic view settings, then sort/ filter.

#3 New columns don’t appear in the card designer

Any new columns you add into your list won’t appear by default, either within the cards themselves, or within the card designer. The only way to get new columns to appear is to re-create the board view.

#4 Empty column values don’t show in cards

If your list item has empty values within it, the columns are hidden from the cards within the board view. This can be confusing as the field order of each card then changes if your list items have or don’t have data.

#5 Image columns show as card headers

I quite like this feature, but it wasn’t expected behaviour I must admit! When you show image columns in cards, they appear as the card header.

Example – change the order of swim lanes within a board

In this example I’ll demonstrate how you can easily change the order of your swim lanes, just by changing the order of your choice values:

• Open your list/ library
• If you are already in the board view, open the view drop-down list > select all items
• Left-click the choice column you have your board view organized by > column settings > edit

• Re-order your choice values to how you want them. You can do this by selecting the six dots next to your choice value and dragging/ dropping them into the correct order

---