SharePoint Selection Field Options
A SharePoint tutorial by Peter Kalmstrom
 The
kalmstrom.com CEO, Peter Kalmstrom is a Microsoft certified
SharePoint specialist and trainer, and in the demo below
he shows how to create fields where users can choose between
several alternatives. Peter demonstrates all the four kinds
of selectors available in SharePoint.
Peter uses the SharePoint Task list and a Task Category
field for his demonstration, but the principles are the
same for all SharePoint lists.
These are the four selector or dropdown fields Peter describes.
The screenshots show how the alternatives are entered:
-
 Choice.
This selector is easy to create, but it is more complicated
to change and SharePoint does not sort the entries alphabetically.
Therefore it is most suitable for selections that are
seldom changed.
-
Lookup. Here the alternatives are fetched from
another list on the same SharePoint site. It is easy
to add or change alternatives, but the creation is more
complicated than the Choice selector. With this alternative
SharePoint will sort the entries in alphabetical order.
-
Managed Metadata. One of the benefits with this
option is that it is possible to create sublevels. You
may also add synonyms or abbreviations that may be used
instead of the actual terms, and you can allow users
to add alternatives from within the Task item.
-
 External
data. This option requires that you create an External
Content Type in SharePoint Designer. Peter connects
his field to a table in an SQL Server database.
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