NOTE: This topic applies only to Active Displays from Spring 2007 and later releases.
The Columns tab allows you to select the columns you want to include in an Active Display, determine the width of each column, and identify any additional columns that should be made available for filtering, sorting, grouping, and/or searching. It is available on all of the existing six native SharePoint list Active Displays (Announcement, Contact, Document, Event, Link, and Task), as well as the new Custom Active Display web part, which can be dragged and dropped onto a page, then configured from scratch.
1. In the Current URL field, identify the URL where the list exists that you want to reference to determine the columns to include in the Active Display.
If the list is on the current site, you do not need to enter anything here because the current site is the default value.
If the list is on a different site, fill out the field and then click Refresh Lists. You can identify any site, including one on a different site or server.
2. At the prompt to Select List to Obtain Column Names, use the drop-down to select the list that contains the columns you want to use in the Active Display. The page is refreshed and the columns from that list that are available for display are shown in the drop-down at the top of the Columns to Display section.
3. The Schema to Edit drop-down defaults to the schema selected on the Sites & Lists tab, but the selection can be changed.
4. Next, choose one of the following options:
Overwrite Existing Schema Replace the existing schema with this newly edited version. This will not affect any existing Active Displays with this same schema name, only the current one.
Save as a New Schema Create a new schema, to be named as stated in the entry field below this radio button.
5. The table in the Columns to Display section lists the columns that are currently selected for display. When you access the Columns tab for the first time:
If you are working with an Active Display for one of the six standard SharePoint lists, the columns selected in this table are determined based on the currently selected schema.
If you are working with the Custom Active Display and there is at least one standard SharePoint list in the site, the Title column is placed in the table and the default list is set to the first non-native SharePoint list with a Title column.
If you are working with either an Active Display or the Custom Active Display and there are no available lists on the site, a message will state No lists were found on this site to match this type of roll-up. Try entering a different URL.
6. Add or remove columns until you are satisfied with the selections.
To add another column to the display, highlight it in the Available Columns drop-down above the table. Columns are displayed in the order in which they are stored in the selected list.
To remove a column from the display, click on the Remove link to the right of the column in the table.
7. Once you have selected the columns you want to include in the display, you can use the Display Order drop-downs to determine the order in which the columns will be displayed.
8. Use the Display % settings to specify the width of each column.
If you are working with Internet Explorer 7+, you can either select a value from the drop-down or type it manually. If you are working with Internet Explorer 6 or earlier, or another browser, the value can only be selected from the drop-down.
As you add, remove, and modify columns, note that the Display Percent Left value is automatically updated, so you always know how much space you have left for additional or wider columns.
It is not required to specify the Display % of each column. If you leave this value blank for all of the columns, all of the columns will be the same width.
9. All of the columns that you select for display are automatically made available for use in filtering, grouping, searching, and sorting. If you would like to reference any additional columns for any of these purposes, select each of those columns from the Available Columns drop-down in the Columns for Other Options section.
To remove a column so that it can no longer be filtered, grouped, searched, or sorted, click on the Remove link to the right of the appropriate column in the table.
10. When you are finished, either move on to another tab or select OK to close the administration interface. The next time you come back to the Columns tab, it will recall the specific site and list/library that was used to define the schema.
NOTE: For optimum performance, limit the number of columns selected in each of the tables on this tab. The recommendations for using the Roll-Up Wizard also apply here:
Active Displays do not support more than 20 columns of data, including search columns
As more columns are added to an Active Display, the search process will become noticeably slower
From a visibility and usability perspective, try to limit the number of columns to 6 or 7
When you change the schema on either the Sites & Lists tab or the Columns tab, the modified column set will be automatically populated on the Filter, Grouping, and Display tabs' drop-down lists. If the Filter and Grouping settings are configured with columns that do not exist in the newly selected schema, then they will make the best attempt to match the columns. It is a good idea to access the Filter, Grouping, and Display tabs after making a schema change to make sure the settings are as expected.
If you are upgrading from a previous release of the Workplace Suite, you can be assured that the Columns tab is completely compatible with previous versions of Active Displays. Your existing Active Displays will continue to show the data they have always shown, but now they can be modified or rearranged if you wish via the Columns tab.
When you access the Columns tab for the first time after upgrading, the properties will be populated as you would expect:
The Current URL is set to the URL where the first list to be rolled up is located.
Select List to Obtain Column Names is set to the name of the list to be rolled up.
Schema to Edit is set to the schema selected on the Sites and Lists tab.
The Overwrite Existing Schema radio button is selected by default.
The table in the Columns to Display section is populated with the columns that are currently displayed, with the current order and display percentage.
The table in the Columns for Other Options section is populated with the columns that are currently selected as search columns.