Microsoft Lists – Create a List from Excel

In this Microsoft Lists tutorial, we will discuss how to create a list from excel in Microsoft lists. Step by step we will discuss how to create an excel file and then we will see how we can use the excel file to create a list in Microsoft lists.

If you are new to Microsoft lists, then check an article on Microsoft lists and various Microsoft lists formatting examples.

You may also like How to create a list from excel in SharePoint Online.

Create a List from Excel in Microsoft Lists

Let us check step by step how to create a list from an excel file in Microsoft lists Office 365 App.

First let us create an excel and format that as a table.

Microsoft lists create a list from excel
Microsoft lists create a list from excel

Once you create an excel, we need to format as a table.

For this select everything and then click on Format as Table, then select a table layout. Then click on OK.

Create a list based on a spreadsheet
Create a list based on a spreadsheet

Then it will open the Format As Table dialog box. Here check the checkbox “My table has headers” like below.

Create a list based on a spreadsheet in Microsoft lists
Create a list based on a spreadsheet in Microsoft lists

You can also rename the Table name like below:

How to Create a list based on a spreadsheet
How to Create a list based on a spreadsheet

Now, our excel file is formatted and is ready. Let us see how we can use this excel to create a list in Microsoft lists.

Open the Microsoft Lists App from Microsoft 365 or Office 365 app launcher. Then click on the + New list.

create a list in microsoft lists
create a list in Microsoft lists

Once you click on the button, the Create a list dialog box will open. Here select From Excel like below:

Microsoft lists create a list from excel spreadsheet
Microsoft lists create a list from excel spreadsheet

Here you will get two options to select the excel files.

1- Either you can click on the Upload file button to upload the excel from the local desktop.

2- The other option is you can select the files from your OneDrive for Business.

Microsoft lists how to create a list
Microsoft lists how to create a list

Once you upload the file, you can see it will populate like below.

If your excel contains multiple files, then you can select it from “Select a table from this file“.

Based on the table selected, it will display the columns and you can also change the datatype. Here for the Holiday Date, I have selected the Date and time. And the Title data type is Title.

Then click on Next.

create a list in Microsoft lists
create a list in Microsoft lists

Once you click on Next, it will you to provide a list name, description, choose a color and to choose an icon. Then click on the Create button.

create a list in Microsoft lists step by step
create a list in Microsoft lists step by step

Once you click on the Create button, the list will be created with the data we have in the excel file and you can see below:

Microsoft lists tutorial
Microsoft lists

This is how we can create a list in Microsoft Lists from an excel file.

You may like the following SharePoint tutorials:

In this tutorial, we learned how to create a list from an excel file in Microsoft Lists. In Microsoft 365 Lists App, we can easily create a list from an excel spreadsheet.

  • I keep getting an error “field_22: Only numbers can go here.” and it won’t create the list. Any suggestions?

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