Customise your table view

Every module that lists records (Projects, Staff, Programs and so on) shows them in a table. You decide which columns appear, in what order, how wide they are and what totals sit at the bottom. Your workspace may use different names for the modules, but the controls are the same everywhere.

How it works

The toolbar above the table holds the controls you use most:

Changes you make in Customise apply straight away. There is no Apply button. To keep a layout for next time, save it as a tab (see Create and manage tabs).

Open Customise

Each column has one row in the list. From left to right a row holds a drag handle, the column name, a pin, a gear and an eye. Hover over any icon to see what it does.

1. Visualisation: switches the module between a list and a board.
2. The Data and Highlights tabs.
3. Search columns: type here to find one column when you have many.
4. A column row: drag handle, name, pin, gear and eye.

Show or hide a column

A hidden column is still listed in the panel, and you can still filter by it. The eyes in the panel always match the columns the table shows, on every page, including Tasks, OKR and RAIDD.

The Name column cannot be hidden. Its eye is greyed out, and a tooltip reads Name is always visible. If a saved tab or preset hid Name, it shows anyway. On Tasks, OKR and RAIDD, Delete is greyed out for Name too.

Show the ID column

Every record has an ID, such as RISK-12, set by Gembaa and read-only. It is a column like any other. Tabs made before the ID column existed hide it, so show it in Customise if you want it.

In a tab with no saved column order that never hid it, ID is the first column. On Tasks and OKR it comes right after Name. If you show an ID that a tab had hidden, it stays where Customise lists it.

Sorting is numeric-aware, so RISK-2 comes before RISK-12. Filter it with the text operators, and quick search matches it. Exports include it while it is showing.

Mini-tables inside a record (see Customise mini-tables), and Card fields on a board, offer ID but do not show it until you add it.

Reorder columns

The Customise panel and the table stay in step, so use whichever is quickest:

• Drag a row by its handle in the Customise panel.
• Drag a column header in the table. A line shows where the column will land. Press Esc to cancel.
• Right-click a header and choose Move left or Move right.
• Select a column header and press Ctrl + Shift + ← or → (Cmd on a Mac).

You cannot reorder columns in the panel while Search columns is narrowing the list. Clear the search first. An open Customise panel follows any move you make in the table.

Name moves like any other column. Where a row has child rows, the expand and collapse toggle, the indent, the type icon and the Restricted badge stay with the Name column wherever you put it.

A move that crosses the pinned edge asks you first. See Move across the edge.

Pin columns

Pinned (frozen) columns stay fixed at the left edge while the rest of the table scrolls sideways. Use them for the name or id you always want in view.

Pinned columns are always one block at the left. A hidden column cannot be pinned until you show it. If you show a hidden column that sits inside the pinned block, it is pinned too. Name can be pinned or unpinned like any column.

Move across the edge

Any reorder can cross the edge between pinned and unpinned columns: dragging a row in the panel, dragging a header, Move left or Move right, or the keyboard shortcut. Gembaa asks before it changes the pin.

To change nothing, click Cancel instead of step 2.

Play

Change column width

• Drag the edge of a column header to resize it.
• Double-click the edge to fit the column to its longest value.
• Right-click any header and choose Auto resize all columns width to fit every visible column at once.
• Right-click a header and choose Set all columns to this column's width to give every column the width of that one.

The first time you open a view that has no saved widths, Gembaa fits the columns to their content for you. This applies to the entity tables, the OKR tree, RAIDD, Pulse, the Allocation list and the Gantt left table. It does not apply to dashboard widgets.

The fit does not count as a change, so Save changes does not appear. Widths you have saved always win. Gembaa keeps the fit only while the page is open, so it runs again on your next visit until you save widths in a tab.

Set totals and format

The aggregations offered depend on the column type:

The footer totals only the rows currently shown, so it changes as you filter or search. Hover over a footer cell to see which aggregation it is. A column with no values shows a dash.

Highlight cells or rows

Highlights colour a cell or a whole row when a condition is true, for example a due date in the past.

The background colours include a Heatmap row, which is a five-step scale. Some columns can take only a background. Gembaa then tells you that text colour, bold, italic and underline are unavailable until you remove that column from the rule.

Rules are evaluated from top to bottom and the first match wins. To give a rule priority, drag it up, or open its Rule options menu and choose Move to top. The same menu has Move to bottom and Duplicate. Highlights also appear in Excel and PowerPoint exports.

Switch to a board

Some modules can show records as a Kanban board instead of a table.

The board has one column per status, plus a No status column for records with no status. Filters and search still apply. A long column loads in pages: click the Load … more button at the foot of the column to see more cards.

1. Visualisation, set to Kanban board.
2. Group by.
3. Sort cards by.
4. Columns.
5. Card fields, below Columns.
6. Show before hover.

When lanes are on, the Expand all swimlanes and Collapse all swimlanes buttons beside the search box fold or unfold every lane at once.

On the board:

• Drag a card to another column to change its status, or to another lane to change the grouping field.
• Click a card to open the record panel.
• Double-click a card's name to edit it in place. A card title saves when you click away.
• Double-click the value or name of a card field to edit it in place, as in the table. Formula and rollup fields cannot be edited.
• Use Add under a column to create a record with that status already set.

The no-value lane, for example No department, starts collapsed while it is empty. To clear a card's value in the grouping field, drop the card on that lane's header. The card keeps its status.

When lanes are grouped by a relation, the lane header shows that record's name and status. Click either to edit it in place. Press Enter to save or Esc to cancel.

If a card cannot be moved, it is locked and a tooltip explains why. Usually you do not have permission to edit the field, or the lane field is required and the card has no other lane to go to.

Choose card fields

A card always shows the record's name, a left border in the colour of its status and an avatar for the person field (such as Assignee). Card fields adds more, each as a name and value row. Card fields belong to the board view. On the Tasks and OKRs pages, each level (for example Objective and Key Result) keeps its own list.

A card holds up to 6 fields. At 6, Add field tells you to remove one first. The card's name, Status and the avatar's person field are not in the list, because the card already shows them.

With a number under Show before hover, each card shows that many filled fields. The rest, and any field with no value, appear when you rest the pointer on the card. A field with no value shows a dash. The list offers All and every number below the count of fields on the card.

Edit a cell in place

Edit a text, number, date, select, status or priority cell without opening the record.

In a select or status cell, picking an option saves it. In a multi-select cell, or a relation that allows several records, tick your choices and click Update.

The new value shows at once. A small cue above the cell says "Saved", or "Couldn't save · reverted" if the change was refused and the cell went back to its old value. Formula and rollup cells cannot be edited in a table. If a formula cannot be worked out, hover over its cell: the tooltip asks you to contact your administrator to correct the formula.

Customise mini-tables

Some tabs in the record panel list related items in a mini-table, for example Milestones, SOWs, RAIDD, Members and Knowledge. Each has its own search, Add button and Customise button. Its Customise panel works like the one above (the first tab is called Columns), minus pinning and board view. After you change a layout, Reset to default appears at the bottom of the panel. Click it to go back to the standard columns.

The Links tab is not a mini-table. Its rows have no Customise, sort or column settings. See Link records.

Tables that show items under a parent, such as Tasks and OKRs, have expand and collapse buttons beside the search box: Expand all rows, Collapse all rows and Expand to a specific level.

Good to know

• A column's order, widths, visibility, totals, highlights, sort, filters and grouping are all saved with a tab. Until you save, the Save changes button shows.
• Mini-table layouts inside a record are not part of a tab. Gembaa saves them for you straight away, and they apply to that list in every record of the same type.
• Tooltips open after a short pause of about 0.3 seconds, and also when a control has keyboard focus. Text that is cut off in a cell shows in full in a tooltip.
• On a narrow screen, such as a phone, the table turns into a list of cards, one per record.
• Board sort, manual card order and collapsed lanes are saved at once, without using Save changes. Group by, Columns, Card fields and Show before hover wait for it.