Filtering/selecting columns?

Lynnette Batt

Any way to filter/select only specific columns to view? I know you can hide columns and maybe that's all, but in a sheet with 50 columns that is super cumbersome. Would be great to have an option to filter or otherwise select to narrow the column view.

JLC

Lynnette, do you need to be able to do this in order to view data, or to alter it? If it's to view, building a report based on the columns you need to view from that particular sheet may be your best bet. If you need to filter your view in order to alter the data, I don't believe you have any other option than to hide the unneeded columns in the sheet itself. You could, in a pinch, drag the size of the columns you don't need to be as small as possible, which would at least minimize the horizontal length of the sheet.

Joel Johnson

I believe Jaye is correct...I would suggest using a report.  However in my experience you are able to change data in a report if you have the right permissions setup.

Lynnette Batt

Yes, forgot to mention I am using reports that way, for both viewing and editing smaller sets of data/columns. But often I need to just quickly view/edit a handful of cells and it's nice to narrow down the column view for that without having to run a report. Wish they would allow you to Filter columns...

 

 

Stefan Siebenkittel

Maybe an idea for your quick edits.

In some sheets with lots of columns, I sort and freeze columns to the have most needed ones always visible in the froozen part.

 

Greetings

Stefan

JLC

+1 to Stefan for making me aware you could freeze columns...totally overlooked that. I'm putting that to use in my own sheets right NOW! Thanks!

J. Craig Williams

Also, depending on the nature of your data (primarily concerned with data in current rows or new rows), a linked sheet for the only the columns of concern might be helpful.

I had set up my team's master sheet and then linked others sheets to the pertinent columns/rows for easier tracking the details. Since I did not have a lot of team turnover, this worked well.

 

Hope this helps,

Craig

Michael Kirzhner

I believe this is needed. In other applications this is called a view (i.e. Salesforce.com). 

There are work arounds with reports etc, but with the report you loose the indentations when you filter and no way to retain parent rows at this time 

Dusty Robinson

I agree. It would be helpful to have the ability to setup views/filters that can hide/view columns.

Brian-smart?

I am a relatively new user, but agree with the importance of column filtering. It would allow quick viewing of certain types of data in a sheet where different data sets need different columns. For example: I am an architect, and a real life sequence for one row of data could be: Site Instruction (SI) needs columns for location/description/ assignment/ date date, etc.; becomes Change Order (CO), now also needs columns for cost/contract time data and acceptance indication; becomes Field Review item, now also needing column for weather data, but no longer cost data; becomes Deficiency if rejected, now needs correction information. This is one of many workflows in architecture, and at each stage there are one or more possible paths (the one always being "closed"). I can see column filtering could hide the unneeded/historic data and allow the same data to be managed/issued/worked on in various ways.This is too complex to manage by hiding columns - I might be able to do it, but lots of ongoing effort and very hard for the newbie. I have identified 25-30 columns so far for what we call Construction Administration (CA), of which between 8 and up to 20 might be in use at a given moment.