How to search, filter and save a view

Every Object has one list of its records, opened from the Objects area of the left menu, such as Objects › Repair. An Object is a kind of record your team defines, such as Repairs or Fabric trials, and What is an Object? explains where they come from. Above each list sit a search box, a Filter button and a Views button.

Between them they answer most of what you bring to a list: where that one repair is, which repairs came back from one particular mill, and how to get to that same list again on Monday without building it a second time.

Before you start

You need View on the Object, such as Repairs · View. Searching, filtering and saving a view need nothing more, so anyone who can open a list can narrow it. Making a view the one everyone lands on needs Rename organization, which admins hold by default.

The search box, Filter and Views come to life once the Object has its first record. If the Object has no fields you can filter on, the Filter button stays hidden. People who can import also see History and Import in the same toolbar, covered in How to import records from a spreadsheet.

Should I search or filter?

Search when you remember a word from the record: a customer's surname, a style name, a phrase somebody typed into a note. Filter when you know a value: this mill, this month, anything over 200.

Search looks across all the text on the record at once. A filter narrows one named field, and you can set several at a time.

The two take turns rather than stacking. While there is text in the search box you are reading search results; clear the box and your filters take over again. So if a list ever looks wrong, glance at the search box first.

Search for a record by the words on it

Type into the search box, which reads Search Repairs on the Repairs list. Results replace the table about a quarter of a second after you stop typing, and clearing the box brings the full list back. Search matches words found in any text on the record, not only in its title.

• Type words out in full. Fairgreen Golf Co.'s repairs desk finds a repair whose notes mention a cracked grip by typing "cracked", not "crack".
• Add a second word to narrow it. A record has to contain every word you type, so "cracked grip" finds fewer than "cracked".
• When a search matches a lot, a note under the results says it is showing the first 50 matches and that nothing is missing. Treat that as a prompt to add another word.
• When you want a group of records rather than one, use filters instead, because a filtered list keeps its shape as you press Load more.

Narrow the list with filters

Press Filter, set one or more fields, then press Apply. The table redraws to just the matching records, and the button shows how many filters are on, for example Filter · 2.

1. Press Filter in the toolbar above the table.
2. Fill in the fields you want to narrow by.
3. Press Apply.

Clear filters, at the foot of the same panel, puts everything back. Filters hold as you press Load more, so the fifty-first record obeys them too.

Each field takes one value, so a filtered list answers one question at a time. When nothing matches, the table says so: "No Repairs match these filters." That message differs from the one on an Object with nothing in it yet, and both are described in How to find and open your records.

Which fields offer a filter?

Five field types carry a filter: Text, Money, Date, Options list and Linked record. Each appears in the Filter panel with the control that suits it. Calculated fields are not in the panel, so filter on the fields people type into.

• Text gives you a Contains box. Type part of what you are after and the list keeps only records whose text contains it.
• Money gives you Min and Max. Either on its own is enough: a Min of 200 with no Max finds everything from 200 up. How amounts are shown is in How to read Tideswell's numbers and dates.
• Date gives you a from date and a to date, and both ends are included. 1 March to 31 March gives you the whole of March.
• Options list gives you the choices an admin defined, plus Any. Fairgreen's repairs offer Warranty, Paid and Goodwill, which come from How to set up choice lists and reference numbers.
• Linked record gives you a searchable picker, so you choose Portside Mills by name. Fields like that are set up in How to link one Object to another.

So the fields an admin gives an Object decide what you can narrow by later. That is the subject of How to plan your fields before you add them, and the field types themselves are described in How to add a field and pick its type.

Share or bookmark a filtered list

A filtered list has its own web address. Copy what is in the address bar and send it to a colleague, or bookmark it. Opening it lands on the same list with the same filters applied and showing in the panel, for anyone who can see that Object.

What travels in the link are the values you picked from a list: an option from an Options list field, or a particular linked record. Set the boxes you type into (Contains, Min, Max and the dates) again once the link is open.

A link is the fastest way to hand somebody a question. "Every repair pointing at Portside Mills, look at the last three" becomes one address you paste into chat.

Save a view and share it with your team

Filter the list the way you want it, press Views, type a name into Name this view and press Save. Clicking that view later re-applies its filters. A tick sits next to whichever view matches what is on screen, so you always know which list you are reading.

• On an Object with no views yet, the panel shows "No saved views yet. Filter the list, then name it below."
• Name a view for the question it answers. "Warranty repairs from Portside" tells the next person what they are looking at; "Priya's view" does not. Names run up to 60 characters, and each of your views on an Object needs its own name.
• A view keeps the choices you picked from a list, the same ones that travel in a link. Set any Contains, Min, Max or date boxes again after you apply it.
• A private view of yours shows a lock icon on its row. Press it to share the view with everyone in the workspace who can see that Object, and the lock becomes a share icon.
• Press the share icon on your own view to make it private again.
• Views other people have shared sit in the same list with a share icon, and you can apply them freely.
• Delete a view of your own with the bin icon on its row. To change a view's filters or name, save a new view and delete the old one.

Choose the view everyone lands on

Press the house icon on a shared view's row. Its tooltip reads "Make this the view everyone lands on", and a confirmation says "Everyone now lands on" and the view's name. Only a shared view carries the icon, so share a view first if it is still private.

From then on, anyone who opens that list without filters of their own sees it already filtered. The toolbar says "Showing" and the view's name, with a Show all link that opens the full list.

Press the house icon again to stop. Setting or clearing the default needs Rename organization on Settings › Permissions, which admins hold by default. Anyone else who presses it sees "You do not have permission to perform this action."

With the right list in front of you, opening and editing a record is How to add and edit a record, and moving one along is How to set a record's status and owner.