For those new to Views, it can be a complex system that appears totally overwhelming. The good news is that the UI is designed to compartmentalize everything; this means that for the most part, you can ignore the parts you're not interested in. Start small and build your way up.

It helps to have something particular in mind that you want to accomplish when using Views. Here are a couple of ideas and a brief sketch of how to accomplish what you want.

Create a page to list users by role

In this example, you will create a page view listing users on your site. Through this step-by-step process, you will become familiar with some basic steps in creating a view, and familiarize yourself with the user interface.

  1. Go to add new view. Give it the name 'user_list', description 'A simple user listing.', tag 'users', type 'User' and click Next.
  2. About the Interface. You have been brought to the Views User Interface. As you start, you are editing the "Default" options for the view. In the 1st column on the left- you can see the pull-down menu offers 'block', for example, to select settings specific only to block views. In the remaining columns, you will be able to add or change options by clicking on links or icons. These options appear below this main area. Most likely, you will need to scroll to see the options appear. As you make changes, these options will appear in bold until you save your view.

  3. Create the page view, edit settings, set a path for the URL and create a menu link

    1. In the 1st column, select 'Page' in the drop-down menu, and click Add Display.
    2. Next we'll add the path, if you don't create a path at this stage, you will see an error, 'Display Page uses path but path is undefined.' until you do. Scroll up to Page settings in the 2nd colum, click the None link next to the Path setting. In the options editing area that appears below, set the path to 'user_list' (or something else if you prefer) and click Update.
    3. Next to Menu setting, Click the No menu link. In the options which appear below, select Normal menu, and set the title to 'User list' and click Update.
    4. Scroll up to Basic settings in the 2nd column, click the No link next to Use pager. Below, in the options, select Full pager and click Update default display.

  4. Select fields to display user information and editing links; then format and re-order.

    1. In 3rd column locate Fields options. Click the + icon to add fields.
    2. Scroll down to "Defaults: Add fields." In the Groups drop-down menu select 'User', then check the following fields: User: Created date, User: Delete link, User: Edit link, User: Last access, User: Name and User: Picture. Then click Add.
    3. You will be taken through the fields you added one at a time. Click Update default display to go to each next field. Leave the default options on all fields except Delete link; change that field's label to 'Operations'.
    4. Next to Fields, click the rearrange icon, which is to the right of the + icon. Down below, drag the Name field to the top, the Delete link (Operations) field to the bottom, and the Edit link field just above it. Then click Update
  5. Preview. At this point, you have done enough to create a valid view. If you scroll down, you will see a preview of your view. At any time you can click the Preview button, but whenever you finish one of the mini forms, the preview will update automatically, so you don't need to, generally.

  6. Style your display as a table; group fields of related information into columns.

    1. Under the Basic settings in the 1st column, click the Unformatted link next to the Style setting. In options below, set this to 'Table', and click Update default display.
    2. You will be taken to the "Page: Style options" form to edit table settings. Next to Edit link select the column to Operations. Next to Operations set the Separator to ' | ' (note the spaces around the | symbol). Check all of the Sortable checkboxes, and set Default sort to 'Name'. When finished, click Update default display.

  7. Set filters for the user list to exclude unwanted entries.

    1. Click the + icon next to Filters. In the options below, select User under Groups drop-down menu, choose the User: Name filter, and click Add.
    2. Select Is not one of and enter 'Anonymous' in the Usernames field. Click Update default display.

  8. Add an argument to list users by role dynamically.

    1. Scroll up to Arguments, click + icon, choose the User: Roles argument, and click Add. Set the title to "%1", and under "Action to take if argument is not present" select "Summary, sorted ascending". Leave the other settings as they are. Click Update default display, and click Update through the prompts that follow to accept their default values.
  9. Finally, click the Save button to save your work. At the very top, click View "Page" to go to your new view!