Enable the “New Folder” Creation Option in SharePoint Custom Lists

SharePoint Server 2007 Document Management is a key feature set of SharePoint portals. One of the basic requirements of a document management system is to create and manage folders within the SharePoint document libraries and lists. For document libraries, the management process is pretty straightforward; you can perform those tasks easily through the management user interface as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Managing Document Libraries: For document libraries, you can create new folders and files as needed through the management interface.

Unfortunately, the option to creating new documents and folders in custom SharePoint lists isn’t available by default—you must enable the option before it will appear on the custom list menu. But it’s not difficult to turn on. Here are the steps:

1. Create a custom list to use as a test bed. As shown in Figure 2, you can view “All Site Content ” by going through Site Actions → View All Site Content , and then clicking on the “Create” link (see Figure 3).

Figure 2. View All Site Content: Click on Site Actions and then Vew All Site Content to create a new list.

Figure 3. Creating New Content: When you reach the All Site Content page, click the “Create” link to create a new list.

1. Alternatively, you can type the following URL directly into the browser window: http[s]://sitecollectionurl/_layouts/create.aspx, where http or https is the protocol you’re using for your site, and sitecollectionurl is the site collection URL for your environment.
2. When you click the “Create” link in Figure 3, you’ll see a “Custom Lists” section. Click the “Custom List” link (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Custom List Creation: You can choose the type of list you want to create from this section.

1. You’ll see a “New” page where you can enter a name for your new list (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Enter List Name: Enter a name and (optionally) a description for your new list, then click Create.

Figure 6. List Settings: From your list’s menu, select Settings → List Settings.

1. Typically, you’ll want to keep all the default settings, so after you enter the list name and optional description, click the Create button.
2. You’ll see the new list. From the list menu, select Settings → List Settings,” as shown in Figure 6.

1. In the list settings page, locate the General Settings section and click the Advanced Settings link in that section (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Advanced Settings: To reach the advanced settings, click the Advanced Settings link in the General Settings section.

Figure 8. “New Folder” Option: Enabling this option adds the “New Folder” item to the list menu.

Figure 9. Expanded List Menu: The option to add a new folder now appears on the list menu.

1. On the Advanced Settings page , locate the “Folders” section. Under the text “Display ‘New Folder’ command on the New menu?” select the “Yes” radio button, as shown in Figure 8.
2. Click “OK” to save the changes and exit the page.

After completing these steps, you’ll see the “New Folder” option in the list menu. When you click it, you’ll be able to create a new folder in the same way as you create a new folder using the document library management interface (see Figure 9).