Bamboo Re-Invents the Lookup Column

In general, I like things that make sense.  Conversely, things that don't make any sense tend to annoy me a little bit; this includes my cell phone, my taxes, the thermostat in my house, and occasionally my cat. It can also include SharePoint lookup columns. They're an inherently good idea -- anything that keeps you from having to re-enter data that's already in your system is okay by me. But here are four things about lookups that don't make any sense.

1. The list you lookup has to be on the same site

Right, because everybody has a master list of cities, states, products, employees, or whatever just sitting there on each and every site in their collection that might need to reference it. That's like keeping a copy of your driver's license in every single pair of pants you own -- kind of a hassle, and definitely redundant.

2. The resulting drop-down contains duplicates

You know what the difference between a value of "Greg Kite" and a value of "Greg Kite" is to a SharePoint list? Absolutely nothing. Despite this, if Greg Kite is in my lookup list twenty five times (maybe he made twenty five orders, or twenty five complaints this year), my "Customer" lookup field will show him twenty-five times. You'll see the same type of thing in your "State" lookup column if there are multiple entries for one state on your lookup list.

I hope you have a sturdy scroll wheel. Speaking of which...

3. No keyboard shortcuts

When I buy stuff online, I always feel for the folks in Wales, or Zambia, because they have to scroll all the way down through all the other countries to get to theirs. Of course, it's not that bad -- most sites let you get pretty close to your country by simply typing the letter it starts with. When it comes to SharePoint lookups, though, you're stuck using the mouse, no matter how long that takes.

4. No relationships

That's right -- I know there's no Los Angeles, Colorado, and no London in Japan, but unfortunately for me, SharePoint doesn't. Even worse, there's no way to teach it, which means that picking a state or country in one column cuts the number of possible cities in the next one from 3,000 to.... 3,000. Bummer.

So there you go; four things about lookup columns that leave them just short of greatness.  Fortunately, in a truly incredible coincidence, I just happen to know about a little product from Bamboo that fixes every single one of these problems. I'm practically shaking in my chair with giddiness writing about this.

The List Custom Column Pack, which you'll be able to download in the next couple of days, is a no-fuss solution to the exact problems with Lookup columns I just laid out. Do you want to reference a list from a different site on your collection? Done. Want to say goodbye to duplicate entries and painfully long drop down menus?  Also done.  To be honest, my favorite thing about part one of the pack (the Bamboo Selector, which is essentially a better Lookup column) is that most of these fixes are just there, implemented without any significant configuration on your end. It works exactly like a Lookup; it's... just... better!

The other half of the pack is the Bamboo Linked Selector, a custom lookup column with all of the benefits of the Selector, plus the ability to "link" to the results of a different column. Remember the "Los Angeles, Colorado" example from before? That won't happen with a Linked Selector -- as soon as you select "Colorado", the "Los Angeles" option disappears, along with every other option that isn't associated with "Colorado". Best of all, you can link anything you want; members to their departments, parts to a kit, offices to a region, you name it.

Bamboo SharePoint Custom Columns are faster, they're more powerful, and they barely require any setup. They're lookup columns the way lookup columns ought to be.

So we took care of that. Up next.... Bamboo Thermostat?