How to Find, Group and Sort Attachments
A call or customer with many files is easier to work through when you narrow, group and sort the list. The Attachments section offers the categories in the sections sidebar, a search box, a Group switch and a View switch, and remembers your choices for you.
How do I see only one category of attachments?
Select the category under Attachments in the sections sidebar on the left of the call screen or customer screen. The Attachments section shows only that category's files, its title becomes the category's name, and the count reads, for example, "3 files of 12".
- All attachments shows every file again.
- No category shows the files nobody has put in a category.
The sidebar lists only the categories this call or customer has files in, each with its count.
How do I search for an attachment?
Type in the search box at the top of the Attachments section, "Search name, comment, memo, category". The list narrows as you type to the files whose name, comment, memo or category contains what you typed, ignoring capitals and accents.
The search works inside whatever the sections sidebar has selected: with a category selected, it looks only in that category. The count beside the title shows how many files match out of all of them, such as "1 file of 15".
If nothing matches, the section says Nothing matches that search and "Clear the search box to see them all." Delete what you typed to see every file again.
How do I group attachments by category, by date or by type?
Use Group at the top left of the Attachments section, under the title:
- By category: the files are in bands headed with each category's name, in alphabetical order, with No category last. This is how the section starts.
- By date added: the bands are Today, Earlier this week (from Monday), each month of this year, then each earlier year, newest first.
- By type: the bands are Documents (PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and text files), Images (photos and pictures), Emails (e-mails saved from Outlook) and Other, in that order. A band with no files in it is not shown.
- Ungrouped: one list, no bands.
Within each band, the files follow the list's sort, which is newest first until you change it. In Normal and Full details each band's heading starts "Category:", "Added:" or "Type:"; in Thumbnails each heading shows how many files are in it.
What do the Normal, Thumbnails and Full details views show?
Use View at the top right of the Attachments section to choose how the files are drawn:
- Normal, the usual list: File (its picture or type, and its name), Comment, Category, Size and Added.
- Thumbnails: a tile for each file with its picture or type icon, its name and its comment.
- Full details: everything Normal shows, plus Memo, Type, Added by, Last edited (when and by whom) and Stored ("In ABM", or "Linked file" for a file kept on a shared drive).
A long memo shows up to three of its lines in Full details, then "…"; point at it to read the whole memo.
How do I sort the attachments or change the columns?
In the Normal and Full details views of the Attachments section, select a column's heading to sort by it, and select it again to reverse the order. Right-click a heading for Sort ascending, Sort descending, Clear sorting and Hide column. Drag a heading sideways to move its column, and drag the edge of a heading to make a column wider or narrower. The File column cannot be hidden.
Note: The Attachments list has no way to show a hidden column again in this version, and the hidden column stays hidden on every call or customer you open. Hide a column only if you will not want it back.
The files start newest first, sorted by Added. Thumbnails is always newest first.
Does ABM Service remember how I arranged the attachments?
Yes, for you, on whichever computer you sign in:
- The view and the grouping you last chose.
- The columns of Normal and of Full details: their order, their widths, which are hidden and the sort.
They are remembered separately for the customer screen and the call screen, and apply to every customer and every call, so the next customer you open looks the way you left the last one.
If a choice could not be saved, the section says Not remembered — this view could not be saved. The choice still applies until you close ABM Service.
The category you picked in the sidebar and the file you marked are not remembered in the same way: they come back when you return to the call or customer with Back, and start afresh when you open it in any other way.
Can I move through the attachments with the keyboard?
Yes. In the Normal and Full details views, select the list once, then:
- Press the Down arrow or Up arrow to mark the next or previous file. If the details panel is open, it follows the marked file.
- Press Home or End for the first or last file.
- Press Enter to open the marked file.
- Press Escape (Esc) to close the details panel. Closing the panel also lets go of the file, so no file is marked afterwards.
In Thumbnails, all four arrow keys move from tile to tile, and Enter opens a tile's details panel.