Gotham over the years - all in one list 🦇
Fun use of Microsoft Lists - MSA Preview to organize a lot of batty actors, characters, movies, batmobiles, poster art, creators and more
Hi Peer,
“I wear a mask. And that mask, it’s not to hide who I am, but to create what I am.” - Batman
… and why not create a list that celebrates who and what Batman is.
As a fan of Batman and the entire Gotham b’atmosphere over many years, I couldn’t resist creating a bat-themed list using the Microsoft Lists - MSA Preview. It’s a list with a lot of items - much depth and ways to pivot - to see who (plural) is behind the mask — a lot of the Batman characters, the actors who played them over the years, the beautiful poster art, roaring batmobiles, and more — all in one list.
Kudos to Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and all the wonderful, creative people bringing Batman and Gotham to life, and keeping it engaging and ever-changing over so many years.
Now, before you read anymore, I want to invite you to jump into the list itself. This is the read-only, public link for this list: “🦇 Spawn of Kane and Finger” | Once it loads in your web browser, explore all you want - click into individual list items, check out all the character-oriented views (top right, including many hiding under the “…” menu); see all the Batmen, Catwomen, Robins, Batmobiles, Jokers, Banes, poster art and more.
This first screenshot should give you an idea of what awaits you in the listcave… Batman 🦇:
Note: PC 📸 goes to all original creators, photographers, and artists throughout this list.
Each item and view conjure action: “AIEE! POW! ZAP! ZLONK! WHAMM! BAP! LISTS!”
Using columns and views to organize and showcase specific characters or art
OK, I hope you took a moment to check out the list itself, clicked around, explored - maybe even reminisced a little. From here on, I’ll show a little more of what’s in the list and how I tracked various elements and built out the various view pivots.
I started by creating a blank list, added and adjusted all the columns (specific details) that I wanted track - important to use a lot of Choice columns so I could slice and dice the info, had a lot of fun creating numerous views - visible in the new tabbed views experience, and leveraged a little color and formatting.
I’ll let the list (and the product behind it: Microsoft Lists) do most of the talking from this point on. First up, if you look at the form screenshot below, you’ll see two things: 1) Which columns I added and how each was used and formatted (this list uses 9 columns), and 2) Which of all the Batman renditions is my personal favorite :).
Once I added all the items (this list has 85+ items), then it was all about views (this list has 15 custom views - mostly using Gallery view). Here are four screenshots to show how the list pivots when you choose from among the various views I created - starting with Catwoman 🐈⬛
Now, let us put a smile on your face with Joker 🃏
Boom boom a little vroom vroom with the Batmobile 🚙
And finally, the beautiful poster art 🎨
With each view, I simply filtered down the list to a specific character or content type, chose Gallery view and saved it with a simple name and emoji. The rest is simply Lists being Lists - giving you the ability to visualize the information and showcase in many ways - all within one place.
Final thoughts…
“I’m whatever Gotham needs me to be.” — Batman
“I’m whatever Gotham 365 needs me to be.” — Microsoft Lists ;)
“Everything’s impossible until somebody does it” (in a list) — Batman (with Mark’s help)
What will you create with Microsoft Lists?
Cheers, Mark “I am @MKashman” Kashman
P.S. (Pun Sharing)
Get your eye rolls ready to bake… one batty one from me, @mkashman 🙄, and one score’ish pun from the world:
Got me thinking this one. What list would I create based on this example and Dr Who came to mind 👍