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Sort, Filter, or Format a Work Item List

You can use Office Excel tools to sort, filter, or format an Office Excel work item list in a different way from which the work items appeared in the original query. The procedures in the following list provide basic information about how to use the Office Excel tools. For more information about sorting, filtering, and applying formatting, see the Office Excel help.

Warning

Do not sort a tree list of work items that you plan to publish. If you sort the tree list, it will change the link structure that is defined for the tree and may generate errors that you will have to resolve before you can publish the work items.

Topic Contents:

  • Sorting a Work Item List

  • Filtering a Work Item List

  • Applying Styles and Formats to a Work Item List

Required Permissions

To perform any of the following procedures, you must be a member of the Contributors group or have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Sorting a Work Item List

To sort a work item list

  1. Open the work item list in Office Excel.

  2. In the heading of the column on which you want to sort, click the down arrow.

  3. In the Sort & Filter menu that opens, click the type of sort that you want to use, such as Sort A to Z.

  4. Click OK.

  5. For advanced sorting features, click the Data tab, and then in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.

Filtering a Work Item List

To filter a work item list

  1. Open the work item list in Office Excel.

  2. In the heading of the column on which you want to filter, click the down arrow.

  3. In the Sort & Filter menu that opens, click the filter that you want to use.

    You can select or clear the check boxes that represent available column contents. You can select by color if work items are color-coded, or you can filter by text.

  4. Click OK.

  5. For advanced filtering features, click the Data tab, and then in the Sort & Filter group, click Filter.

Applying Styles and Formats to a Work Item List

To change the style or format of a work item list

  1. Open the work item list in Office Excel.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Format as Table.

  3. Click one of the table styles.

  4. (Optional) Click other formatting options on the Home tab to refine the appearance of the work item list.

  5. (Optional) Click the Design tab, and then click the design tools.

    Note

    When you refresh the work item list, not all formats may be retained. For example, date formats are set by Team Foundation. Any changes to a date format field will be overwritten with the date format that was used by Team Foundation.

See Also

Tasks

Create, Open, and Modify Work Items Using Office Excel

Refresh Work Items and Change the List Type in Office Excel

Add or Remove Columns in a Work Item List