Set Default Listing “View” in Admin

I’m looking for a way to set the default “View” options under post types in the admin area. For example, by default Posts will default to a “list” view instead of “excerpt” – I’d like to change this to excerpt by default – what would be the best way to achieve this? I’ve done a bit of searching on this, but am stuck in the mud thus-far. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Creating my own Admin Forms in a WordPress CMS?

I just decided to try using WordPress for a CMS (not a blog). The site will have some product information that I want the client to be able to update. Instead of creating an entire admin side just for them to update their products, is it possible to create a form in the WordPress admin so they can add products to a database?