Bulk Editing of SharePoint List Items

Imagine you have a list with a “Confirm” yes/No field and you want a user to be able to view items and click a Check box on those items which are completed and click a Save button:

This saves the user opening each item in turn, changing the “Confirm” field and saving the item. This can be done using the SharePoint Designer and using a DataView. To do this:

• Select File + New + Page to create a new ASPX page.
• Choose “Create from Master Page…” and click OK and OK again to use the default master page..
• Save the page as “BulkEdit.aspx” in the list’s folder, e.g. “ConfirmList” where the existing AllItems.aspx file exists.
• “Create Custom Content” for “PlaceHolderMain” using the quick link:

• Open the Data View >Manage Data Source . Click on “Data Source Library” pane on right of screen and click the list, e.g. “ConfirmList” and select Show Data:

• Select the Insert Selected Fields as… button in the Data Source Details panel and select Multiple Item Form:

• From the “Data View” menu select Edit Columns and remove all columns bar “Title” and “Confirm” (or whatever columns you want displayed).

You will now set the “Title” column to be read-only so that only the “Confirm” check box is editable.

• Single click a “Title” edit box and click the “Common FormField Tasks” button (the greater than sign)or top right corner and select “Text” from the “Format as” list.
• Save the file.
• To test, navigate to the page, e.g. TestSite/Lists/ConfirmList/bulkedit.aspx.

Also take a look at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101191141033.aspx, this uses an XML file as the data source rather than a SharePoint list.