When
you’re working in a list, you create a new list item by using the New
Item button in the Items ribbon or using the link Add New Item that may
be shown under the view displaying the existing list items.
However, unlike with
documents, using the New Item button does not open another application
but rather opens a dialog that enables you to fill in the properties or
columns for the new list item (see Figure 1).
Because each list can
have different properties (or columns) in different orders, the screen
can look totally different in each list. For example, the announcements
list has properties such as Title and Body (see Figure 2), whereas the contacts list has properties such as First Name, Last Name, and Business Phone (see Figure 2).
Like document
libraries, lists can support multiple content types. This means that
the New Item button in the Items ribbon might also offer a drop-down of
options for you to choose the sort of list item you want to create (see
Figure 4). Depending on the content type you select, the properties fields may change.
For
example, a contacts list might give you the option of creating an item
of type External Contact, which would be used for contacts outside the
company. This content type asks you to fill in the property for Company
(see Figure 5).
An item of type
Internal Contact, on the other hand, does not ask for that property
because it assumes that the contact belongs to your company. Instead,
it has the property Department (see Figure 6).
Another way to create new list items is to use the datasheet view.