Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta provides a fast and easy way to record to-do items, contact information, or any other details that are important to your business, family, or friends. Using lists, you can quickly set up a row and column format that meets your needs. You can create a list from a blank list and then customize the columns, or you can choose a list containing preformatted columns to track contacts, events, or tasks.

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This article explains how to add, modify, and delete columns in a list. For information about adding or deleting rows in a list, see Add or delete a row in a list.

 Note:   When you add or delete columns or change the data types in a list, you cannot use the Undo button  on the toolbar to reverse your action or the Repeat button  on the toolbar to repeat your action.

Open a list

To create a new list:

1. In Office Live Workspace, on the left navigation bar, click a workspace to open it.

2. On the actions bar, click New, and in the drop-down list that appears, select the type of list that you want to create.

 Note:   You can create a list in a workspace, but you cannot create a list in a folder.

To open an existing list:

1. In Office Live Workspace, navigate to the workspace containing the list that you want to modify, and then click the name of the list.

Add a column

When you create a new blank list, the list opens with blank columns. If you create a Contact List, Event List, or Task List, the columns are preformatted for a specific purpose. In all lists, you can add new columns to capture additional information that you find useful.

1. To add a new column, on the actions bar, click Add Column. Alternatively, press ALT + INSERT. The new column appears to the far right of the list.

Change a column heading

When you add a new column to a list, the column heading appears as Column 1 by default.

To change the text in a column heading:

1. In the list that you want to modify, click the top cell of the column.

2. Type a new column heading.

Set up column data types

You can define the type of information, known as a data type, that you want to include in each column.

In the list that you want to modify, click the arrow next to a column heading. In the drop-down list, select one of these options:

1. Single line text Capture brief information up to 255 characters, such as names or e-mail addresses.

1. Multiple lines of text Record text of up to 1,500 characters, such as mailing addresses, customer feedback, or project descriptions. Columns containing multiple lines of text cannot be sorted.

 Note:   When typing multiple lines of text, you can create a line break in your text by pressing ENTER.

1. Number Record numbers, such as the number of guests for a party or number of plants needed for a landscape project.

1. Yes/No Add a check box. Select the check box, for example, to identify to-do items that are complete, or projects that are assigned to an owner.

1. Date Use the calendar in a date column to add an event date or a project due date.

Keep in mind that if you change the data type for a column that already contains information, you may lose some of the content in the column. For example, if you change a column from a Date data type to a Yes/No data type, you will receive a warning that some of the dates in your column may be deleted.

Reorder columns

You can change the order of columns in both blank lists and preformatted lists.

1. In the list that you want to modify, place your cursor above the top cell in the column that you want to move. A four-tipped arrow appears.

2. Drag the column to a new location.

 Note:   If you have been granted Viewer access to a shared list, you can reorder or resize columns and also make sorting changes while viewing the list. When you close and reopen the list, however, your changes are not saved.

Delete a column

To delete a column:

1. To select a column, place your cursor above the top cell in the column that you want to delete, and click the four-tipped arrow that appears. To select multiple columns, press CTRL, and click the four-tipped arrow of the columns that you want to delete. Then do one of the following:

   1. On the actions bar, click the arrow next to Delete, and then click Delete Column.

   2. Click the arrow next to the column header, and then click Delete Column.

   3. Press ALT + DELETE.

 Notes:   

1. If you are using a blank list, you can delete any columns that you choose. If you are using a Contact List, Event List, or Task List, you can only delete the additional columns that you added to these lists. You cannot delete any of the preformatted columns.

2. The text from a deleted column in a list is removed permanently from your workspace. It does not appear in the Deleted Items workspace, so you cannot restore it later.