You are currently browsing the daily archive for September 15th, 2008.
In this post I am going to show how to tweak the look of a contacts list using an HTML calculated column.
What makes a contacts list? Usually, you’ll first want to identify the right contact (name, role/responsibilities). Then you need a way to get in touch with him/her, usually through an e-mail address and a phone number. A picture will add a warm touch to the e-relationship you have started…
In my example I have chosen the following behavior:
- on page load, only the full name is displayed
- when hovering over the name, a pop-up displays the picture, the job title and the phone number
- a click allows me to send an e-mail to the contact
I have already talked about the popular “Today” trick, and explained how you can get the same result by simply using the [Modified] column:
http://pathtosharepoint.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/calculated-columns-the-useless-today-trick/
I have a strange feeling about this. People who have been using this trick for years don’t believe me (which makes me doubt), but at the same time they can’t prove me wrong.
Anyway, let’s move on and review the “Me” trick.
I hope you have found some useful applications of my previous posts and created a couple lists relying on HTML calculated columns.
At this point, let’s not forget that all the customizations were entirely done through the SharePoint UI (as opposed to customizations done with SharePoint Designer for example). Which means that you now have the possibility to save your lists as templates and reuse them.
I have received a lot of positive feedback on my method “using calculated columns to write HTML”, so I have decided to continue the series and propose more formulas.
To simplify, from now on I am going to use the term “HTML calculated column” to refer to this method. I have created a specific category for this topic:
http://pathtosharepoint.wordpress.com/category/the-html-calculated-column/
The next example will be about using HTML events. I’d also like to extend this to make it work with scripts, but it is more difficult. In particular it involves security issues (allow an inserted script to run on the page), and cross-browser support.
In addition to my posts, you can check out Ben Bradley’s post here. He proposes an adaptation to make the method work in calendar views.
If you have an example to share, feel free to send it to me and I’ll be happy to publish it!
And if you need help for a specific case, use the comments section or contact me by e-mail: Christophe@PathToSharePoint.com
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