Using Lists and Layouts
The Calls list, the Customers list and the Scheduler share one set of tools for narrowing, arranging and colouring what you see: sorting and grouping, choosing columns, filtering by a column, pages, the filter rail down the left with its chips, saved layouts and colours. This page says which screen has which tool and where to find it, so you know where to look before you start. Each tool has its own page with the steps.
Which list tools does each screen have?
The Calls list and the Customers list have every list tool in ABM Service, except that only the Calls list can be filtered to one picked customer in the filter rail. The Scheduler has the filter rail and its chips, saved layouts and colours, but no columns to sort, group or filter and no pages, because it is a board of engineers' days rather than a list of rows.
The table below lists each tool, the page that explains it, and whether the Calls list, the Customers list and the Scheduler have it.
| Tool | Calls list | Customers list | Scheduler |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sorting and grouping by a column | Yes | Yes | No |
| Choosing, hiding, moving and resizing columns | Yes | Yes | No |
| Filtering by a column with its funnel | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pages, rows per page and the list's keys | Yes | Yes | No |
| The filter rail and the filter chips | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Filtering to one customer in the rail | Yes | No | Yes |
| Saved layouts, and what a layout remembers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Colours of call types, statuses, engineers and more | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Each screen also has questions of its own that are not list tools: Which calls and the date window on the Calls list, Which accounts on the Customers list, and Which engineers, the views and the settings on the Scheduler. They are described with each screen: Using the Calls List, Using the Customers List and Using the Scheduler.
Where are the list tools on the Calls list and the Customers list?
On the Calls list and the Customers list, almost every list tool starts from the column headings or the filter rail on the left:
- Sort — click a column heading, or right-click it and choose Sort ascending or Sort descending.
- Group — right-click a heading and choose Group by this column, or drag the heading up above the headings.
- Columns — right-click any heading and choose Choose columns…, or Hide column to take one off.
- Column filters — the small funnel at the right of a heading opens that column's filter. On the Calls list, the comment shown under each call has a slim heading of its own, Comment, under the column headings, with the same funnel.
- Pages — the row under the list sets how many rows a page shows (10, 25, 50 or 100) and moves between pages.
- Filter rail — the panel on the left with the screen's lists: call types, call statuses, action statuses, engineers and one customer on the Calls list; group, category and account manager on the Customers list.
- Layouts — the Layouts control under the screen's name at the top of the filter rail.
- Colours — the small square beside each item in the filter rail.
On both screens the column that opens a record, Call on the Calls list and Name on the Customers list, always stays first and cannot be hidden.
Is the Find a call box a filter?
No. The Find a call box on the Calls list's toolbar and the Find a customer box on the Customers list's toolbar each open one call or one customer: type, then click a match or press Enter, and that record opens. They never narrow, sort or change the list behind them, and the panel under the box says so: "Click one to open it. The list behind stays as it is." So they have no chip on the filter line and are not part of a layout, and when you come back with Back, the row you had marked on the list is still marked. How each box finds its matches is described in How to Find a Call and How to Find a Customer on the Customers List.
To narrow the list itself, use the filter rail or a column's funnel. On the Calls list, to list every call whose comment, problem description or resolution contains a word, use the funnel on the Comment heading under the column headings, or add the Problem description or Resolution column with Choose columns… and use its funnel. Each of those searches the whole text, not only the part the list shows.
Which tools does the Scheduler have?
The Scheduler has the filter rail, the filter chips, saved layouts and colours, but not the grid tools, because the board is a planner of engineers' days rather than a list of rows. There are no columns to sort, group, hide or filter on the Scheduler, and no pages.
On the Scheduler you can:
- Tick call types, call statuses, action statuses and engineers in the filter rail, and pick one customer.
- Save the board's arrangement as a layout from the Layouts control at the top of the rail. A Scheduler layout never saves a date: picking one keeps the dates the board is showing, and the Scheduler opened afresh starts on today's window.
- Change the colour of a call type, call status, action status or engineer from the square beside it in the rail. Colour by in the Scheduler's settings decides which of those four colours the appointments wear.
The Scheduler's own controls (the date window, Which engineers, the views and the settings) are described in Using the Scheduler.
Why can't I sort, group or filter a column?
Some columns offer fewer tools on purpose, and ABM Service tells you why rather than leaving a control that does nothing.
- 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, cannot be sorted, grouped or filtered, because calls nobody has been scheduled for have no value in them. Right-clicking one of those headings shows the note "This column is blank on every row here, so there is nothing to sort, group or filter by." Their headings are drawn faint and their cells faded, except the Engineer cells, which hold each call's Schedule engineer button. Any other column keeps its tools even when every row you can see happens to be empty in it.
- The Problem description and Resolution columns on the Calls list hold long text. They cannot be sorted or grouped, and each cell shows only the start of the text, but their funnels search the whole of it for the words you type, and say "Searches the whole note, not just the part the cell shows."
- A long-text custom field your company has added works the same way: its funnel searches inside the text and says "This one holds a sentence, so it can only be searched inside." Such a field shows only the first 200 characters of its text, ending in "…" when there is more, and it cannot be sorted or grouped.
- The Comment under each call on the Calls list is a line, not a column: it can be filtered from the funnel on its heading, but not sorted, grouped, moved or hidden.
- Some columns are not offered for grouping because every row would be its own group, such as the customer's name, code, address or phone number on the Customers list.
Do the lists on the call and customer screens work the same way?
Partly. Two lists on the call and customer screens are drawn by the same grid as the Calls list, with fewer tools:
- The Calls section of a customer's screen, and Existing calls on the call screen, which lists the same customer's other calls — you can sort, move, resize and hide its columns and page through it there, but it has no column filters and no Choose columns…. A column hidden there comes back the next time you open that customer or call afresh, from a list or a link rather than with Back.
- The Attachments section of the call and customer screens — you can sort it and move, resize and hide its columns, but it is grouped with its own Group buttons (By category, By date added and Ungrouped) rather than from the headings, and it shows every file without pages. It is described in Using the Attachments Section.
Neither list is saved in a layout. The Layouts control on the call screen and the customer screen arranges the screen's fields, not these lists: see How to Save and Switch Form Layouts.
Are my layouts and colours private?
Yes. Your saved layouts and your colours belong to your ABM sign-in: nobody else sees them, and they are there on any computer where you sign in, in the browser or the ABM Service desktop app. Changing a colour or saving a layout never changes what a colleague sees.
Layouts and colours are kept apart. A layout belongs to one screen, so the Calls list, the Customers list and the Scheduler each have their own list of layouts. A colour belongs to an item, such as one call type, and is the same on every screen and in every layout.
Two small preferences belong to the browser or desktop app you are using instead of to your sign-in: how wide you have dragged the filter rail, and whether you have folded it away with the Filters button. In the ABM Service desktop app those two last only while the app is running: once it has been exited from its icon by the clock, restarted or updated, the rail is back at its normal width and unfolded.
Can I export, print or copy what a list shows?
No. The Calls list, the Customers list and the Scheduler have no export and no print button, so nothing sends their rows to Excel or to a file. The rows of the Calls list and the Customers list cannot be selected with the mouse either, because a double-click on a row opens it, so a value cannot be swept out of a cell and copied from the list.
What to do instead:
- To copy one value, such as a call's reference or a customer's address, open the row and copy the value from the call screen or the customer screen.
- To come back to the same rows, set the filters, columns and sort you want and save them with Save as a new layout… in the Layouts control at the top of the filter rail.
- To count rows, read the words beside the page buttons under the Calls list or the Customers list, which say how many rows match, for example "120 customers — page 1 of 5".
In a web browser, the browser's own print command prints the screen as it appears; ABM Service has no layout made for paper.