SharePoint: Create a What's New web part for a library or list (with no programming!)

Using Sort, Limit and Expand Folders is a great way create a "what's new" web part.

1. Add a web part to the page for the list or library
2. From the web part's dropdown menu select "Modify Shared Web Part" and from the properties panel click the "Edit the current view" (just below the "Selected View" dropdown)
3. In the Sort section select "Modified" and "descending"
4. Expand Folders and select "Show all items without folders" to show all of the documents in the library in a single list
5. Expand "Item Limit" and enter the number of items to display
6. Optionally select what to do if there are more than that number of items:
• select "Display items in batches" so the users can click next / previous links to page through the data, or
• select "Limit" to display just xx number of items and then display a More link to take the user to the library's page
7. Click OK to save the view and click OK to update the web part.