Working with Grids
Much of the information for Vantagepoint is entered and displayed in grids on various forms. A grid is a table, with columns and rows, where you enter, change, and view data for a record or transaction.
Grids display on the tabs of many forms and on some dialog boxes. For example, when you enter a new in-pursuit project for a contact, you add it to a grid that contains all of the previously entered in-pursuit projects for the contact record.
Grids make it easy for you to sort and organize data. You can pin the view of grid data, customize the view or order of columns, print a report of a grid's data, page through grids with many rows (also known as paged grids), select all or unselect all records in a grid, and export data from a grid to a spreadsheet.
Saving Your Work in a Grid
When you add a row to a grid or make a change to the information in an existing row, your work is saved automatically when you tab or click off of that row.
Grids with Many Rows
To more efficiently and quickly locate a specific row in a grid with many rows, use the grid's search option instead of scrolling. When you scroll through a grid with many rows, Vantagepoint may load only some of the rows initially, so that the tab displays quickly. If you continue to scroll through the grid, the scrolling action sometimes pauses to load the next set of rows as you approach the bottom of the scroll bar. The same thing might happen if you have scrolled down in the grid and then start scrolling up and approach the top of the scroll bar.
More About Grid Rows
Other icons with special purposes may also display in grid rows. For example:
: The Grid Options icon appears in many of the
Vantagepoint grids when you hover your cursor at the end of a record's row. Click this icon to perform specific tasks (such as, edit, email, print, or others) or to refine the properties of a specific record in a grid. Depending on which application and record you are working in, the grid options will vary. The two most common grid options found in grids are
Copy and
Delete.
Some grids include a Grid Actions Bar of rounded buttons, which you can use to perform actions related to data in the current grid. For example, in Interactive Billing, you can use the
Bill or
Hold buttons to bill or hold the currently selected row in grids on the Labor, Expenses, and Units tabs. The buttons that display on each Grid Actions Bar vary, depending on the grid in which you are working.
About Paged Grids
A paged grid is an enhanced type of grid that allows you to page through long lists of records without adversely impacting performance. Paged grids load long lists of records incrementally instead of loading thousands of records at once. Similar to other grids, when you export records from a paged grid, the Notification Center notifies you when the comma-separated values (.csv) file is available to download. The .csv file is then stored in the FileStream database until you download it.
- List Views in hubs and a number of other applications.
- Grids on the Labor tab, Expenses tab, and Units tab of the Interactive Billing application.
About Parent/Child Grids
Parent/child grids are found in many applications, forms, and settings areas throughout Vantagepoint. A parent/child grid is a type of grid structure that consists of a primary (parent) grid and a related secondary (child) grid. When using parent/child grids, the value that you select in the parent grid determines the values that will be available in the child grid. Also, the title of the child grid will change to reflect the parent grid option that you selected.
Both parent and child grids have the full complement of tools available for sorting, filtering, adding, and removing records within a grid. In some cases, when deleting records from parent/child grids, you are required to remove records from both the parent and the child grids.
Example of Parent/Child Grids
- Categories: Use this parent grid to add labor categories (such as Principal, Engineer, or Project Manager) to the rate table. Select a labor category row to determine which labor category is used in the Employee Overrides grid. The selected labor category description is then appended to the Employee Overrides grid name. If no employees are listed in the grid for the labor category listed, click +Add Employee to display the Employee lookup, and then add one or more employees with the labor category to the grid list.
- Employee Overrides in Category: Use this child grid to add employees who should be billed at a different rate or a different category for a particular project. The Employee Overrides grid is based on the labor category that you selected in the parent grid. The labor category that you selected in the Categories grid determines the billing rate for the listed employees.