One of my favorite pmPoint features is the Column Visibility feature that allows you to hide specific columns in a list. An immediate great use of this is that it means you can reuse a complex form from elsewhere, and reduce the complexity without deleting a load of columns, with the option to easily bring these columns back should you decide you need some complexity after all. It’s always much easier to bring back something that was hidden, than it is to recreate something that was deleted.
Most SharePoint lists actually have three form states: New Form, Read Form and Edit Form. The Column Visibility Settings page allows you to decide which of the three forms you want to hide columns on.
Things that this could allow you to do include:
- Force a choice column value (e.g. Region) that you can filter on in BrightWork Reporter at a higher level
- Force Users to pick or specify something in a new item that they can’t edit later
To use the Column Visibility settings feature, follow the steps below:
- Click List | List Settings on the list toolbar.
- Click Column Visibility Settings (BrightWork).
- Select the options you want and click OK.
As you can see, you can choose to hide the column from the New, Edit and Display forms. To make this happen, you unselect the appropriate option in the first three columns. The default for most columns in the list to to be selected.
You can also opt to hide the column in all forms and views. To make this happen you must select this option in the last column.
An interesting thing to note about this page is that it makes it very easy to find out the Internal Name of all the columns in a list – something that can be very important if you are building your own BrightWork Reporter reports.