Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta provides lists — easy-to-use Web documents in a familiar row and column format. You can create a blank list and set it up to meet your particular needs; you can also use list templates that are preformatted with columns designed for a specific purpose. With these preformatted lists, you don't need to create new columns — you can get to work right away.

 Note:   You can add a list to a workspace, but you cannot add a list to a folder.

Choose a list template

Office Live Workspace provides three list templates: a Task List, a Contact List, and an Event List.

Task List

You can use the Task List to track your must-do items to facilitate planning and productivity in your business, social, and family life. The Task List provides these default columns:

1. Title

2. Due date

3. High priority

4. Completed

Use the Task List to prioritize and manage:

1. Presentation assignments Identify the individual work items that must be completed to make your presentation a success. Use the Task List to assign owners and due dates for each work item and to flag some tasks as high priority. Share the list with team members so they can update the list when they have completed their assigned tasks.

2. Class coursework In the classroom, use the Task List to post a reading list or step-by-step instructions for a science experiment. Then invite students, faculty, or parents to access your Task List to keep informed about the latest classroom activities.

3. Family chores You can create a household to-do list, assign tasks, and post the list on your family workspace. Any family member whom you invite to share it can review and update the list from a computer with an Internet connection at home, school, or work.

Contact List

Keep track of your business contacts, friends, and family. The Contact List provides the following default column titles:

1. First name

2. Last name

3. E-mail address

4. Home phone

5. Mobile phone

6. Company

7. Job Title

8. Address

Use your Contact List to collect:

1. New contacts from a trade show Use the Contact List to quickly record the contact information for potential customers you meet during the show. Share your list with your team back at the office so that they can send promotional materials to the contact while the trade show is still top-of-mind.

2. Parent contacts If you're a teacher, keep parent contact information close at hand on your workspace. You'll be able to refer to your Contact List to send out e-mail messages reminding parents of upcoming field trips and other class activities.

3. Study group contacts Create a list of your group's contact information and add a column to the list to identify who will be hosting the next meeting. Share your Contact List with your study group so that everyone knows when and where the next meeting will be held.

Event List

Use the Event List to coordinate your key business, social, and family events with these default column titles:

1. Title

2. Location

3. Start time

4. End time

5. Description

The Start time and End time columns offer a handy date and time selector. Click a cell in one of these columns, and then click the clock to choose both a date and a time.

Use the Event List to track:

1. Team meetings Record the dates and locations of your team meetings and who needs to attend. Share the list with members of your team who are located in different cities so they can keep track of the next time they need to travel to your meeting or call in for a telephone conference.

2. Class activities Keep students and parents updated on recurring class activities, such as field trips, upcoming art projects, or photo days so that students can come to class prepared.

3. Family schedules Coordinate carpooling schedules, after-school activities, birthday parties, and family get-togethers using the Event List. Share your list with family members so they always know where they should be on any given day.

Open a list template

To create a new list from a list template:

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

2. On the actions bar, click New, and then click Task List,Contact List, or Event List.

For information about how to change a column title or reorder columns in your list, see Add or modify columns in a list. To learn how to navigate through your list, and for instructions for cutting, copying, and pasting list text, see Modify text in a list.

Add a column to your list

You can add new columns to your list template to make it better suit your needs.

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.

Delete a column in your list

You cannot delete any of the default columns in your list template, but you can delete any new columns that you have added.

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 Delete  , and then click Delete Column.

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

   3. Press ALT + DELETE.

 Note:   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 will not be able to restore it later.

Set up column data types

When you add a new column to your list template, you can define the type of information, known as the data type, that you want to include in each column.

 Note:   You cannot modify the data types for the default columns in a list template.

1. In the list that you want to modify, click the arrow next to a column title. In the drop-down menu, select one of the following:

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

   2. Multiple lines of text Use to record longer text of up to 1,500 characters, such as mailing addresses, customer feedback, or project descriptions. Columns that contain 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 Use to record numbers, such as the number of guests for a party or the number of plants needed for a landscaping project.

2. Yes/No Use to add a check box. You can include and then select the check box, for example, to identify people whom the sales department should contact or projects not yet assigned to an owner.

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

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 receive a warning that some of the dates in your column may be deleted.

Share your list

Your list can become even more useful if you share it with others. When you send a sharing invitation, you can choose the people whom you want to share with, and you can assign each person a role that determines whether that person can review, comment on, and revise content in the list or just review and comment on it. For more information about sharing lists, see Share your list with others.

Integrate your list with Office applications

If you have Microsoft Office 2003 or the 2007 Microsoft Office system installed on your computer, you can integrate lists in your workspace with Office applications on your computer. It's an easy way to work with your list while you're offline.

1. Connect to Office Outlook You can transfer the contents from your lists to Microsoft Office Outlook, where the list content will appear in its own folder. There is no need to update the two lists separately. Any time that you make changes to your list in Office Live Workspace, the same updates appear in your list folder in Office Outlook. For more information about transferring your list to Outlook, see Connect your list to Outlook.

2. Export to Office Excel You can export your list to a Microsoft Office Excel worksheet and use Office Excel to further analyze your list contents. For more information about exporting to Office Excel, see Export list content to an Excel spreadsheet.