SharePoint Online List View: A Complete Guide (With Examples)

If you’ve ever opened a SharePoint list and thought, “I wish I could just see the items relevant to me,” list views are exactly what you need.

A SharePoint Online list view is simply a saved way of displaying your list data. You control which columns appear, how items are sorted, what gets filtered, and even how the data looks visually. Think of it like a saved filter on a spreadsheet — except smarter, more flexible, and available to your whole team.

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through everything: what SharePoint list views are, the different types available, how to create and edit them, and a few practical tricks that’ll actually save you time.

What Is a List View in SharePoint Online?

When you create a SharePoint list, all your data lives in one place. But not everyone needs to see everything, all the time.

A list view lets you slice that SharePoint list data in a specific way — showing only certain columns, filtering to specific item types, grouping by department, or even displaying things as a Kanban board. The underlying data never changes; you’re just changing how it’s presented.

Here’s a real-world example: Imagine you have a Help Desk Tickets list with 500 items. Your support team wants to see only open tickets. Your manager wants to see all tickets grouped by priority. You want to see only the tickets assigned to you. Instead of three separate lists, you create three views on the same list.

That’s the power of list views in SharePoint Online.

Types of SharePoint Online List Views

Before we create anything, let’s look at the view types available to you.

1. Standard View (List View)

This is the default — a classic table format with rows and columns. Every SharePoint list comes with a standard view called “All Items” out of the box. It’s the most commonly used view and works great for most scenarios.

2. Compact List View

Same as the standard view but with reduced row height. Useful when you want to see more items on screen without scrolling.

3. Gallery View (Tiles View)

This displays each list item as a card with a thumbnail image. It’s great for visual content like a product catalog, employee directory, or asset inventory where images matter.

4. Calendar View

If your list has date columns, you can display items on a calendar — by day, week, or month. Perfect for project deadlines, event schedules, or leave tracking lists.

5. Board View (Kanban)

One of my favorite views. This displays items as cards across columns — like a Trello board. You pick a choice column (like Status or Priority), and each unique value becomes a swim lane. Great for tracking task progress.

6. Datasheet View (Grid View)

This is the spreadsheet-style view where you can edit data directly in cells — no need to open individual items. Extremely useful when you’re doing bulk edits or quickly updating multiple records.

Create a New List View in SharePoint List

Let me walk you through two methods — the quick method using the modern interface and the detailed method for full control.

Method 1: Quick View (Modern Interface)

This is the fastest way to create a view on-the-fly.

1. Open your SharePoint list
2. Click the + Add View options button (Next to the “All Items”)

3. Give your view a name
4. Choose your view type (List, Calendar, Gallery, or Board)
5. Click Create

That’s it. Your new view is created with default settings. You can then filter, sort, or tweak it from there.

Method 2: Full Control via List Settings

This gives you much more granular control — columns, sort order, filters, grouping, and more — all in one screen.

1. Open your SharePoint list
2. Click the gear icon (⚙️) at the top right of the page
3. Select List settings

4. Scroll down to the Views section
5. Click Create view

6. Choose your view type (Standard View, Calendar View, Datasheet View, etc.)
7. Fill in the settings (more on this below)
8. Click OK

Configure a SharePoint List View — The Settings Explained

When you create or edit a SharePoint list view using the List Settings route, you’ll see a long settings page. Here’s what each section means and when to use it.

View Name and Audience

Give your view a descriptive name. Something like “Open Tickets – My Team” is much more useful than “View 3.”

You’ll also choose between:

• Personal view — Only you can see this view
• Public view — Everyone with access to the list can see this view

If you want to make a public view, you need at least Contribute-level permissions on the list.

You can also check “Make this the default view” if you want this to be the first thing people see when they open the list. Only one view can be the default, and it must be a public view.

Columns

This is where you pick which columns appear in the view and in what order.

• Check the box next to a column to show it
• Uncheck it to hide it (the data still exists, it just won’t appear in this view)
• Use the position numbers to set the left-to-right column order

For example, if you’re creating a view for the sales team, you might show: Item Name, Customer, Sale Value, and Status — and hide internal fields like Created By or Modified.

Sort

Choose up to two columns to sort your data by.

For example:

• First sort by: Due Date (ascending) — so upcoming items appear first
• Then sort by: Priority (descending) — so high-priority items float to the top within the same date

Filter

This is one of the most powerful parts of a view. Filters let you show only the items that match specific conditions.

You can filter by:

• A column value equals something (e.g., Status = “Open”)
• A column contains text (e.g., Title contains “Server”)
• Dynamic values like [Today] or [Me]

The [Me] filter is particularly useful — it dynamically shows items assigned to whoever is currently logged in. So you create the filter once (“Assigned To is equal to [Me]”), and every person who uses that view will automatically see their own items.

Example filter setup:

• Show items when: Project Status is equal to Open
• AND: Project Owner is equal to [Me]

This gives you a personal “My Open Tasks” view that works for every user without any manual changes.

Group By

Grouping organizes your list items under collapsible headers based on a column’s values.

For example, if you group by Department, all items from “HR” appear under one header, “IT” under another, and so on. Users can expand or collapse each group.

You can group by up to two columns. Note: multi-select columns (like a “People” column that allows multiple selections) cannot be used for grouping.

Totals

If you have number or currency columns, you can show aggregates like Sum, Average, Count, Min, or Max at the bottom of a column.

For example, on a Purchase Orders list, you could show the Sum of the Amount column to see total spend at a glance.

Style

This lets you change how rows are displayed — for example, using a “shaded” style that alternates row colors to make large lists easier to read.

Item Limit

By default, SharePoint shows up to 30 items per page (though this can go higher). You can change this to show more or fewer items per page.

One important thing to know: SharePoint has a list view threshold of 5,000 items. If a view tries to retrieve more than 5,000 items at once (without proper indexing or filtering), you’ll get a threshold error. The fix is to make sure your views are filtered or sorted on indexed columns.

How to Edit an Existing List View

Made a mistake or want to tweak a view? Easy.

1. Switch to the view you want to edit
2. Click View options (top right)
3. Click Edit current view
4. Make your changes
5. Click OK

You can also go to List Settings → Views section → click the view name to edit it.

Change the Default View of a SharePoint List

The default view is what people see when they first open the list. Here’s how to change it:

1. Switch to the view you want to make the default
2. Click View options
3. Check the “Set Current view as default”.

Remember — only public views can be set as the default.

How to Delete a SharePoint List View

If a view is no longer needed:

1. Go to List Settings
2. Scroll down to the Views section
3. Click the view name you want to delete
4. Click Delete at the bottom of the edit view page

You cannot delete the default view. You’ll need to set another view as the default first.

SharePoint List View Practical Examples

Here are a few real-world SharePoint list views I use all the time. You can set these up in minutes.

“My Pending Tasks” View

Assume you have a SharePoint task list and want to display the pending tasks for logged-in users. Then you can use the filter criteria below to get “My Pending Tasks”.

• Filter: Assigned To = [Me] AND Status = Pending
• Sort: Due Date ascending
• Use case: Every team member sees only their own pending tasks when they open the list

“This Month’s Deadlines” View

If you want to show the tasks whose due date is this month. You can use the below filter conditions while creating the SharePoint list view.

• Filter: Due Date is greater than or equal to [Today] AND Due Date is less than or equal to [Today]+30
• Sort: Due Date ascending
• Use case: A quick look at everything due in the next 30 days

“By Department – High Priority” View

Suppose you want to view high-priority tasks by department. You can use the filter criteria below when creating the SharePoint list.

• Filter: Priority = High
• Group By: Department
• Sort: Due Date ascending
• Use case: Manager’s view to see all high-priority items organized by department

Board View for Task Tracking

• View type: Board
• Group by column: Status (with values like Not Started, In Progress, Complete)
• Use case: A visual Kanban board for your team’s workflow — no extra tools needed

Switching Between SharePoint List Views

Switching views is dead simple. Just click the View options button (top right of your list) and select any view from the dropdown. The currently active view will have a checkmark next to it.

You can also share a direct link to a specific view by switching to that view and copying the URL from your browser. The view name is embedded in the URL, so whoever opens that link will land directly on that view.

SharePoint List View Helpful Tips

• Views don’t affect data. Hiding a column in a view doesn’t delete the data. It’s still there — just not visible in that view.
• Personal views are yours only. If you create a personal view, other users won’t see it. Great for custom dashboards you build for yourself.
• You can have as many views as you need. There’s no practical limit on the number of views per list. Go wild — create a view for every scenario your team uses.
• Board view needs a Choice column. The Board view only works with a single-line choice column as the grouping field. Make sure you have one set up before creating a board view.
• Index your filtered columns. If your list has thousands of items, index any column you plan to filter or sort on. Go to List Settings → Indexed columns to add them. This prevents threshold errors.
• Views on mobile look different. SharePoint’s mobile experience uses a simplified view. If your team uses SharePoint on mobile, test how your views look on a phone too.

Wrapping Up

SharePoint Online list views are one of those features that seem simple on the surface but make a huge difference in day-to-day usability. Once your team has the right views set up, people stop complaining about “too much noise” in the list — because they can see exactly what matters to them.

Start with the basics: a “My Items” personal view and a clean default public view. Then layer in group-by views, calendar views, and board views as your list grows. You’ll be surprised how much more useful a simple SharePoint list becomes with just a few well-configured views.

Also, you may like:

• SharePoint Check In Check Out Works
• Format a SharePoint Online List Column using JSON
• Configure a Sensitivity Label For a SharePoint Document Library
• SharePoint Online List Permissions: Step‑by‑Step Guide for Unique, Item‑Level & Anonymous Access

Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.