Filters are one of my most-frequently used features. I always save my most frequent filter settings as views, which is a really nice feature. I have a few minor annoyances about working with filters and filtered views that I wanted to share.
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When adding a new row in a filtered view, if the new (empty) row doesn’t match the filter criteria, it is immediately filtered out, so it can’t be edited without switching views. It makes it hard to add new rows within an arbitrary view.
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I often create a filter for the rows I want to work on. One typical scenario is when a specific column has an empty value. Of course, as soon as I fill in a value, the row is filtered out, so I can’t copy/paste from that row, drag a formula down the column, etc.
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I usually love the fact that the row details pop-up respects the Hidden Columns setting within the view. However, I sometimes have to change a value in a field that is not displayed. This gets very cumbersome – I have the right record open, but I need to close it, switch views, find the row again, make the change, then go back to the original view and find the record again. It would be awesome to have a new menu item under the row details pop-up, under the “Delete” and “Print” menu items, to display the full record, just within the pop-up.
Are there some features I’m not aware of that could help me in these cases? #1 and #2 could be solved with a button to lock the filtered rows (similar to the existing Lock View, except lock to the currently-displayed rows.) That’s how the Excel filters work, so it would be familiar, and probably why I jump to that solution, but I’d be open to others.
Thanks as always!
Peter
