How to find and open your records

Records live inside Objects, the kinds of record your team defines, and every Object your workspace has gets one list in the Objects area of the left menu. This page is how you get to that list, read it, and open the single record you came for. If the word Object is new to you, start at What is an Object?.

Before you start

You need View on the Object, such as Sample requests · View, as Working with records explains. Access is set per Object, so being able to open Sample requests tells you nothing about whether you can open Fabric trials.

Where do your Objects live?

In the Objects area of the left menu. Click Objects to fold out one row per Object, then click a row to open that Object's list.

Each row shows the Object's singular name, sorted A to Z, so Fairgreen Golf Co. sees Fabric trial, Repair and Sample request.

The menu shows one area folded open at a time, starting with the area you are in. The things Tideswell ships with have their own areas: sales and stock under Selling, purchase orders and suppliers under Buying. How to find your way around covers the whole menu.

Rows are chosen per person, so the list you see is exactly the list you have access to. An Object you have no access to is left out rather than shown locked.

Old links keep working. If a teammate sends you an address saved before someone renamed Sample requests, it still lands on the right list. Renaming is covered in How to rename, reorder or retire an Object.

What is the list showing you?

Up to six columns, taken from the first six fields in the order an admin arranged them, newest record at the top. Money, number, percent and calculated columns are right-aligned so the figures line up down the page. Everything else lives on the record itself, one click away.

Which six fields appear is set by field order, so if the wrong six things are on screen, ask an admin to reorder the fields. How to plan your fields before you add them explains why the first six are worth thinking about before a list fills up.

A calculated column shows a figure worked out for you rather than one anybody typed. On a record created moments ago it can read "Not calculated yet" for a short while. How to build a field that works itself out explains how to read one.

For how money, percentages and dates are formatted in those columns, see How to read Tideswell's numbers and dates.

Can I put the columns in my own order?

Yes. Drag a column heading left or right to move it. The first column, which carries the record's name, stays where it is.

Tideswell keeps your order on your account, so it comes back on any computer you sign in on. It is yours alone: your teammates keep their own order.

How do I open one record?

Click anywhere on its row. On the keyboard, move focus to the row and press Enter. Either way the record opens on its own page.

Top to bottom, the record page shows:

• Suggested changes, when the Agent has suggested one for this record. See How to approve, refuse or undo a suggested change.
• The reference number, if the Object has one.
• Owner, then Status if the Object uses statuses. See How to set a record's status and owner.
• The fields, with a Save button, then any calculated fields.
• Related, the tasks, documents and records linked to this one. See How to link a record to work, and see what points at it.
• Activity, the comments and the history of changes. See How to comment on a record and see its history.
• A section for each Object whose records point at this one, then a section for each file field.

If you hold Update on that Object, you change the record in place without switching into an edit mode. That is covered in How to add and edit a record.

How do I get back to the list?

Click the Object's plural name at the top of the record page, such as Sample requests. Your browser's back button and the Object's row in the menu work too.

If your workspace has chosen a default view for that Object, the list opens already filtered. It says "Showing" and the view's name, with a Show all link beside it for the whole list. How to search, filter and save a view explains how that default is set.

How do I get past the first fifty?

Press Load more at the foot of the list. It pulls in the next fifty rows underneath the ones already on screen, and you can press it again for the fifty after that.

Loading more suits reading down a list. When you are hunting one record out of six hundred, use the Search box or the Filter button in the toolbar above the table instead.

Both are covered in How to search, filter and save a view. A filter also holds as you press Load more, so you can narrow first and then page through what is left.

What do the empty screens mean?

Four messages, and each means something different.

The first says "No Sample requests yet. Records you log here will show up in this list, searchable and filterable like every other Object."

That is the ordinary starting state: the Object is set up and waiting for its first record. Press New Sample request in the middle of the list and fill in the form. If you can import, the toolbar also offers Import, covered in How to import records from a spreadsheet.

The second says the Object has no fields yet, with a Go to Settings button. That one is for an admin: give the Object its fields in Settings › Objects, covered in How to add a field and pick its type.

The third says "No Sample requests match these filters." The records exist and your filters are leaving all of them out, so clear the filters and the list comes back.

The fourth appears while you search: "No matches for" and the words you typed. Try fewer words, or check the spelling.

Why can I not see an Object I know exists?

Because View is decided per Object and per person. An Object you cannot view is left out of your Objects area entirely, so the usual sign is a colleague describing a list you do not have.

If you open a link to one, a padlock page says "Sample requests access required" and asks you to speak to an admin. Nothing is broken and no data is missing. Ask an admin to grant you Sample requests · View, which is How to set who can see and edit an Object.

The same idea explains a subtler case. You can open Sample requests but the New Sample request button is missing, or you can read a record but there is no Save.

The rows are separate, so you can hold one without the others. How to work out who can do what in your workspace walks through how to work out which one you are short of before you ask.