Show or hide the columns of a list, document library, or discussion board

About views

Views make it quick and easy to see list information in a variety of ways. Besides using views in lists (such as Announcements, Contacts, and so on), you can use them in document libraries and discussion boards. 

When you create a view, a hyperlink that displays the view is added to the view bar on the page that displays the list. An indicator marks the active view, as shown:

You can create as many views as you want for any list, document library, or discussion board. When you create a view, all the members of your team can use it. 

You can create custom views to do one or a combination of the following:

• Filter by a set of criteria

• Sort in a particular order

• Hide or show columns 

For example, rather than applying the same filter every time you go to a particular list, you can create a view that stores the filter. Then, to see the filtered information, you click the hyperlink that displays the view you created. You can even make your new view the default view, so that when team members go to the page that displays a list, they automatically see the filtered information.

1. On the page that displays the list, document library, or discussion board, click Modify settings and columns.

2. Under Views, edit an existing view or create a new one:

   • To edit an existing view, click its name in the View (click to edit) column.

   • To create a new view, click Create a new view, then in the Name section, type a name for the view. If you want the new view to be the default view, select the Make this the default view check box.

3. In the Columns section, select the check box next to each column you want to display in the view, and clear the check box next to each column that you want to hide in the view.

4. Under Position from Left, select the order in which you want the columns to appear, where 1 is the leftmost column, 2 is to the right of column 1, and so on.

5. At the bottom of the page, click OK.