When
you’re creating a new column, the first thing you need to decide in
addition to the name for the column is its type. The type of the column
defines what kind of data can go into it, and SharePoint has a lot of
different built-in column types for you to choose from. The following
sections explain each built-in column type and the different settings
you can define for each one.
Single Line of Text
You use the Single Line of
Text column type when you want the user to enter simple text in a
single line (that is, no line breaks), as shown in Figure 1.
Aside from the regular
settings, such as the description for the column and whether the column
is mandatory, you can also define the maximum number of characters
allowed in the field (up to 255 characters) and the default value for
the column (see Figure 2).
The
default value for a Single Line of Text column can be either a static
piece of text that you type if you select the option Text or a
calculated value showing the current user’s account name by using the
token [Me]. For example, you might want to create a calculated default
that will have text (that the user can change) saying who purchased an
item. The default is the name of the current user filling the form, but
if the user is filling in the form for someone else, the text might
need to be changed. Figure 3 shows how to configure this, and Figure 4 shows how it looks to users.
