Using List Web Parts

The information stored in lists and libraries can be made more powerful when presented in a Web Part page that presents the information in context for a user audience. Once a list or library has been created in your site, it is available as a Web Part that can be added one or many times throughout your site, connected to other Web Parts and modified to show the information most appropriate for that Web page audience.

Adding a list Web Part

All list and libraries on your site can be added as Web Parts to pages on your site. This allows you to create pages with multiple Web Parts that provide a consolidated view of the site content and to present the list and library information in a page that adds context to the information either through additional text or other list data that is relevant for the user tasks.

To add a list or library Web Part to your page, follow these steps:

1.	On the page that you want to add the list or library Web Part, select Edit Page from the Site Actions menu in the upper right corner.
2.	Select the zone in which you want to add the Web Parts and click Add a Web Part.
3.	Select the lists and libraries that you want to add to your page as shown in Figure 4.17. If you select Web Parts that you want to display in a zone other than the one that you are in, you can drag the list Web Part to that zone after you have added it to the page. Figure 4.17. Add Web Parts dialog box [View full size image]
4.	Click Add.

The list and library Web Parts are added to your page with the default look and feel for that type of list. For example, the links list Web Part shows links in a bulleted list while the announcement list Web Part shows announcements in an article type style that shows the first portion of body and inserts ellipses if the body text is too long as shown in Figure 4.18.

Figure 4.18. List Web Part default views

[View full size image]

List Web Parts are added with the link to add a new item at the bottom of each list. This is controlled by the toolbar type setting on the Web Part. If you would like to modify whether this link is shown, follow these steps:

1.	On the part with the list Web Part that you would like to modify, select Edit Page from the Site Actions menu in the upper-right corner.
2.	Select Modify Shared Web Part from the Edit menu on your Web Part.
3.	Select a toolbar option. The Summary Toolbar option provides the link to add a new item at the bottom of the list Web Part as shown in the Links Web Part in Figure 4.19. The “full toolbar” option will insert the tool bar for the list or library at the top of the list Web Part as shown in the Shared Documents Web Part in Figure 4.19. The No Toolbar option will just present the list content as shown in the Announcements Web Part. Figure 4.19. Toolbar options for list Web Parts [View full size image]
4.	Click OK.

The list and library Web Part title is linked to the default view for that list or library. If you want to change the link for the Web Part title, follow these steps:

List and library Web Parts are connected to the list data but if they are deleted from a page, they do not delete the list itself.

Modifying list Web Part views

You can modify the view of a list or library Web Part once it has been added to your page so that you display the appropriate information for your audience. You can select a view that you have already configured for your list or library or you can modify the view directly in the Web Part. If you choose to use a view that you configured in your list or library, the Web Part will adopt those view settings but will not stay synchronized so if you make changes to your list and library view, the list Web Part will not reflect those changes unless you select the view again in the Web Part pane.

To modify the view for your list Web Parts, follow these steps:

Connecting Web Parts

List Web Parts on a page can be connected so that you can configure a master-slave Web Part relationship. This allows you to configure a Web Part page so that users narrow the information to exactly what they need to see without leaving the page.

To connect list Web Parts, follow these steps:

1.	On the part with the list Web Parts that you want to connect, select “Edit Page” from the Site Actions menu in the upper-right corner.
2.	Select Modify Shared Web Part from the Edit menu on the master Web Part that will provide the row to the slave Web Part.
3.	In the Edit menu for the Web Part, select Connections Provide Row To <Web Part Name> where Web Part name is the list Web Part that you want to provide the connect to as shown in Figure 4.21. Figure 4.21. Configuring the connection between lists [View full size image]
4.	In the dialog box, select the field in the master list that you will be sending to the slave list to filter on as shown in Figure 4.22. Figure 4.22. Selecting the column that will be sent to the slave list Web Part
5.	In the Select a column in <web part name> that contains the title data dialog, select the column that will match the column selected in Step 4. If you do not see your column in the drop down, confirm that the column is visible in the Web Part view.
6.	Click OK in the Web Part tool pane.

You can connect a list to multiple Web Parts. Once a list is configured to be a master Web Part, a radio button selector for the list items will appear.