How to custom order playlists in Microsoft Lists

In my previous blog post I’ve explained how to create Video Playlists using the new awesome Microsoft Lists playlist template, and today I’m showing how you can tweak it a little bit to organize the videos.

By default, videos are shown in the playlist by the order they were added  without an option to sort them differently, but with a small customization this behavior can be easily modified.

Order Microsoft Lists playlist

Once you get your playlist configured and with some videos, to sort them with a specific order you should do the following:

  1. In your playlist open the view selector and switch to the All Items
  2. In the list view click in the Add Column option
  3. Select the type Number
    Order Microsoft Lists playlist
  4. Type a name for the column that will be used to order the videos
  5. Set the Number of decimal places to 0 and click on Save

With the new column created, edit each one of the items and define the order they should appear in the list.

After doing this change you will notice that the order of the videos remains the same, to get them sorted the next step is to modify the Playlist view by doing the following.

  1. Click in the cog icon to open the settings menu and then click on List Settings
  2. Under Views section, click in the Playlist link
    Order Microsoft Lists playlist
  3. Scroll down to the Sort section and replace the Created column by your new order column
    Order Microsoft Lists playlist
  4. Click OK to save your changes


4 Responses to “How to custom order playlists in Microsoft Lists”

  1. Tim

    October 28, 2023

    Definitely appreciate your posting this workaround, but the fact that list owners can’t just drag-to-reorder videos in a playlist is just wild to me. What if we need to add a video between videos 3 and 4 in a list of 60? It feels unreasonable to me to expect users to renumber every video manually each time a reorder is necessary when drag-to-reorder is widely used across the web, including in some Microsoft products like Forms.

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      February 9, 2024

      Hi Tim,

      Drag and drop sorting is planned for lists but I don’t believe it will work for the playlist.
      My suggestion to prevent you for reordering the entire list is to set the order like 10,20,30,40, this way you will have empty slots in case you want to add more videos.

      Hope this helps,

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
  2. Wilhelm

    February 7, 2024

    Hi Joao,

    Quick question.
    Is there a way I can custom rearrange list entries by dragging and dropping them up or down in the list, or add line items in between entries, similar to MS Project Web?
    Thanks.

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      February 7, 2024

      Hi Wilhelm,

      Rearranging items by dragging and dropping is not yet available but it should be soon in the next few days.
      You can see it in action in a video here.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply

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I've been working with Microsoft Technologies over the last ten years, mainly focused on creating collaboration and productivity solutions that drive the adoption of Microsoft Modern Workplace.