How to Sort and Group a List
On the Calls list and the Customers list you can put the rows in the order of any column, and gather them under headings by one or two columns, for example all the calls of one status together. Both are done from the column headings at the top of the list: click a heading to sort, or right-click it for the menu that sorts and groups.
How do I sort a list, and put it back in its normal order?
Click the column's heading to sort by it: the first click sorts from lowest to highest (A to Z, oldest first), and clicking the same heading again reverses it. A small arrow beside the heading's name shows which column the list is sorted by and in which direction.
You can also sort from the heading's menu:
- Right-click the column heading on the Calls list or the Customers list.
- Choose Sort ascending or Sort descending. The one in force has a tick beside it.
The list sorts by one column at a time. Choosing a new sort always takes you back to page 1, because page 3 of a different order holds different rows.
To order the list by two things, such as by engineer and then by due date within each engineer, group by the first and sort by the second. On the Calls list, right-click the Engineer heading and choose Group by this column, then click the Due heading. A grouped list is always ordered by its groups first, and the sort you choose then orders the rows inside each group.
The Calls list opens sorted by Logged, newest first, and the Customers list opens sorted by Name. A column that holds long text, such as a call's problem description, cannot be sorted. Nor, on the Calls list while Which calls is on To schedule, can the Engineer, Action status, Due, Started and Ended columns, because calls nobody has been scheduled for have nothing in them.
To put the list back in its own order, right-click any column heading and choose Clear sorting. It is in every column's menu while the list is sorted, not only the sorted column's, because the column you sorted by may since have been hidden or grouped.
How do I group a list by one or two columns?
Right-click a column heading and choose Group by this column. The rows gather under headings such as "Status: Open", and a grouping bar appears above the column headings showing what the list is grouped by.
You can also drag instead:
- Press and hold on a column heading on the Calls list or the Customers list.
- Drag it upwards, out of the row of headings. The grouping bar opens and says "Drop Status here to group by it", with your column's name in place of Status.
- Let go over the grouping bar.
Dragging a heading sideways only moves the column; the grouping bar opens only once you carry the heading up and out of the heading row. Dragging a heading needs a mouse or a pen, not a finger on a touch screen, and the first column (Call on the Calls list, Name on the Customers list) cannot be dragged at all.
A grouped column leaves the heading row, because its value is already written on every group heading. Rows with no value in that column are grouped under "(none)". Grouping does not fold anything away: the list still pages through rows, so a group can carry on over a page break. The last group heading on a page says "(Continues on the next page)", and the first one on the following page says "(Continued from the previous page)", so every page opens with a heading naming what its rows belong to. Grouping always starts again from page 1. Sorting still works in a grouped list: click another column's heading and the rows under each group heading follow that column's order, so grouping the Calls list by Engineer and sorting by Due lists each engineer's calls in due-date order.
A list can be grouped two levels deep, for example by status and then by call type within each status: group by a second column the same way as the first, and it becomes the inner level. A third level is refused. If you drag a third heading up to the grouping bar, the bar says "2 levels is as deep as this list groups"; if you choose Group by this column from a heading's menu while the list already has two groupings, nothing changes. Remove one of the two groupings first.
How do I reverse or remove a grouping?
Use the chips on the grouping bar above the column headings. Each grouping has one chip, outermost first.
- Click the chip's name to reverse the order of that level's headings (A to Z becomes Z to A). An arrow on the chip shows which way it runs.
- Click the × on a chip to remove that one grouping. The level below it moves up.
- Click Ungroup all at the end of the grouping bar to remove every grouping at once. Ungroup all is also in every column heading's right-click menu while the list is grouped.
Hiding a grouped column in the Choose columns dialog also removes its grouping, and like any change of grouping it takes the list back to page 1. When the last grouping goes, the grouping bar disappears.
Why won't a column group?
When you drag a heading on the Calls list or the Customers list up to the grouping bar and that column cannot group the list, the grouping bar tells you as you drag, before you let go, and repeats it if you drop there anyway. The messages are:
- "Code cannot group this list" — the column is not offered for grouping (the column's own name appears in the message). On the Customers list, columns where almost every row is different, such as the code, address, phone number, e-mail and dates, are not offered. A column that holds long text, such as a call's problem description, or, on the Calls list while Which calls is on To schedule, the Engineer, Action status, Due, Started and Ended columns, cannot group either.
- "2 levels is as deep as this list groups" — the list already has two groupings.
Columns that cannot be grouped have no Group by this column item in their right-click menu. A column the list is already grouped by has left the heading row, so it cannot be grouped a second time.
On the Calls list, the Call column, which holds the call number, never groups: every call number is different, so each group would hold a single call. Its heading cannot be dragged at all, so no message appears, and its right-click menu has no Group by this column. To gather calls together, group by a column such as Type, Status, Customer or Engineer instead.