How to Filter a List by a Column
Every column you can filter on the Calls list and the Customers list has a small funnel button at the right of its heading. It opens a filter for that column, so you can show, for example, only calls with a certain reference, or only customers in one group. The funnel shows when you point at the heading, and a column that is filtering keeps its funnel visible and filled in so you can always see it. On the Calls list, the comment shown under each call has a funnel too, on the slim Comment heading under the column headings.
How do I filter a list by one of its columns?
Point at the column heading and click the funnel at its right-hand end, choose what to keep, then press Apply. The list goes back to page 1 and shows only the matching rows, and a chip on the filter line above the list says what the column is filtered to.
- Point at the column heading on the Calls list or the Customers list.
- Click the funnel button (its name is "Filter" and the column's name).
- Choose what to keep: tick values, type text, enter numbers or pick dates, depending on the column.
- Press Apply, or press Enter in a text box.
The funnel can also be reached without a mouse: press Tab to move through the headings' funnel buttons. The corner of the filter card says what kind of filter it is: List, Text, Number or Date, or Pick for the Calls list's customer and invoice-to funnels, which open the customer search, and Status for the Customers list's Which accounts card. The Escape key, the Close button or a click anywhere else closes it without changing anything.
How do I filter by a list of values?
A List filter shows every value the column can hold, each with a tick box. Tick the ones you want and press Apply; ticking six values costs one reload of the list, not six.
- Select all and None tick or untick every value that is showing.
- When the list holds more than eight values, a search box appears at the top ("Search" and the column's name). Select all then ticks only the values the search is showing, not the ones it has hidden.
- The count beside the buttons, such as "3 selected", says how many you have ticked.
- A yes-or-no column offers Yes and No.
How do I filter by text?
A Text filter has one box. Type part of the value, choose Starts with or Contains, and press Apply or Enter. Upper and lower case are ignored; the card says "Case is ignored. Starts with is the one an index can use."
Starts with is the faster of the two. When you choose Contains on the Calls list, the card warns "Contains cannot use an index — every call in the date window is read. Fine on a month, slow on a year." On the Customers list the card says the whole customer table is checked, which is quick there.
A column that holds a sentence or a note can only be searched inside: its card has no Starts with, its box says "Words in the text…", and it says "This one holds a sentence, so it can only be searched inside." The warning about what Contains costs appears on it as well. On the Calls list these are the Problem description and Resolution columns, the Comment under each call, and any long-text custom field your company has added; on the Customers list, any long-text custom field.
How do I find calls by a word in the comment, problem description or resolution?
On the Calls list, use that note's own funnel: it lists every call in the date window whose note contains the words you type, anywhere in it, even past the part the list shows.
- Point at the slim Comment heading under the column headings on the Calls list and click its funnel. For the problem description or the resolution, first add the Problem description or Resolution column: right-click any heading, choose Choose columns…, click the column and press Apply. Then click the funnel in that column's heading.
- Type a word or phrase in the box.
- Press Apply, or press Enter.
The list goes back to page 1 and a chip such as "Comment: contains" followed by your words appears on the filter line. Each funnel searches only its own note: the Comment funnel the comment, Problem description the problem description and Resolution the resolution. The cards say so: "Searches the whole comment, not just what its line has room to show." on the Comment card, and "Searches the whole note, not just the part the cell shows." on the other two. So a call can be listed for a word you cannot see in its row; open the call to read the whole note.
Only calls inside the list's date window are searched, so to look further back, widen the date window first. Remove the filter with the × on its chip.
To open one call by its words rather than narrow the Calls list, type them in the Find a call box on the Calls list's toolbar instead: it looks through the reference, comment, problem description and resolution of the calls logged in the last 12 months, whatever the list's date window, and opens the call you pick. See How to Find a Call.
How do I filter by a number or a date?
A Number filter has At least and At most. Fill in one or both, then press Apply. Leave either blank for an open end; rows with no value in the column drop out.
A Date filter offers presets: Today, This week, Last 7 days, This month, Last 30 days, This year, Last year and Custom. A preset applies the moment you click it and closes the card. Custom opens From and To date boxes, and then needs Apply. Both dates are included. Rows with no date in that column drop out.
On the Calls list, the Logged and Due funnels move the list's one date window rather than adding a second one; other date columns, such as Started or Ended, add a window of their own on top of it.
Note: A date column filter keeps the dates it worked out on the day you applied it. If you pick This month in the Started funnel and save that in a layout, the layout brings back that month's dates next month too, even though the chip still says "This month". Only the Calls list's own date window, set from the rail or the Logged and Due funnels, moves with the calendar. Pick the preset again to bring a column's dates up to date.
How do I change or remove a column filter?
Click the chip for that column on the filter line above the list to reopen its filter, holding what you last chose, or click the chip's × to remove it. Inside the card, Clear filter removes the filter; it is offered only while the column is filtering.
Removing the last tick from a list filter, or emptying a text box, removes the filter rather than leaving an empty one that would match nothing. Clear all filters on the filter line removes every filter at once.
Why do some column filters tick the filter rail?
Some columns are filtered by the same control as a list in the filter rail, so the funnel and the rail are two doors onto one filter. On the Calls list, ticking a value in the Type, Status, Action status or Engineer funnel ticks it in the rail as well. The Customer and Customer code funnels both open the same customer search as the rail's Customer block: picking a customer applies at once and shows only that customer's calls. The Invoice to and Invoice to code funnels open the same search for a second, separate filter, the customer the calls are invoiced to, so you can filter by both at once.
On the Customers list, the Status funnel is Which accounts, and the Group, Category and Account manager funnels are the rail's lists. The Name and Code funnels there are ordinary text filters. The Find a customer box on the Customers list's toolbar is not a filter at all: it opens one customer and leaves the list as it is, and the Find a call box on the Calls list does the same for one call. See How to Find a Customer on the Customers List and How to Find a Call.
Why can't I filter a column, or add another filter?
Every column on the Calls list and the Customers list has a funnel, with one exception, on purpose: on the Calls list, while Which calls is on To schedule, the Engineer, Action status, Due, Started and Ended columns, and any custom field your company keeps on a call's actions, have none, because calls nobody has been scheduled for have nothing in them, so a filter could only ever find nothing. Switch Which calls to All or Scheduled to filter by them. A column that holds long text, such as Problem description, does have a funnel, but it can only search inside the text, with no Starts with.
A list can have at most 10 column filters at once. When ten are on, the funnel of an eleventh column opens with the message "A question may filter at most 10 columns. Clear one to filter this." Remove a filter you no longer need, from its chip's × on the filter line, and try again. On the Calls list, ticks in the filter rail's lists and the picked customers do not count towards the ten. On the Customers list they do: the Group, Category and Account manager lists in the rail are column filters, so each one with ticks counts as one of the ten.