Custom views: save and share your favourite ways of working

A custom view saves one way of looking at a list, such as "My overdue tasks" or "Client review board": its filters, columns, grouping and sort order. Each view is a tab, so switching between setups takes one click. For a short overview, see introducing custom views. This guide covers every option.

Views work on a project's tasks, My Tasks, All Tasks, All Projects (both the Active and Archived tabs), Contacts, a company's page, Team Schedule and Expenses.

The view bar and toolbar

Each tab in the view bar is a view:

• The icon shows the layout, such as list, board or Gantt.
• The active tab shows how many items are in the view.
• A people icon marks a shared view. Hover over a tab for its full name and whether it's personal or shared.
• An amber dot means the view has unsaved changes.
• Tabs that don't fit are under More, grouped into Personal and Shared, with Add view… and Manage views… at the bottom.

Below the view bar, the toolbar holds the tools for the current view: Group, Sort (a field, plus a button for ascending or descending), Fields, Search and Filter, and your active filters. Some layouts add their own, such as Zoom and PDF on a Gantt.

Avaza opens the view you last used on each page. The page address includes the view, so the browser's Back and Forward buttons move between views, and you can copy the address to send a colleague a link to a shared view. A personal view doesn't open for anyone else.

Change and save a view

Change anything in the toolbar and the tab gets an amber dot. Nothing is saved until you choose:

• Update saves the changes into the view.
• The arrow next to it offers Discard, which returns the view to how it was saved, and Save as New, which keeps the original and saves your changes as a new view.

Only the person who created a view can update it. On anyone else's shared view, the button is Save as New, for Administrators too.

You can switch to another view without saving. Your changes stay with the view, dot and all, until you update or discard them or close the browser tab.

A view remembers its filters, which columns show and in what order, its grouping and its sort. It also remembers the Gantt zoom level, whether subtasks are expanded, the layout of the Files view and, on Team Schedule, the bar size, zoom and date range. Whether groups are expanded or collapsed isn't saved.

Create a view

• Add view… (in More): choose the View type, type a View name and choose Who can see this view: Personal or Shared. Then click Save view. A new view starts with the layout's default columns and no filters. On Contacts, a company's page and Expenses, the view type is the list you want, such as Team or Invoices.
• Save as New: saves the view you've just changed as a new view, with the same choice of name and who can see it.
• Duplicate: right-click a tab and choose Duplicate to copy it as "Copy of …".

View names must be unique on a page. My Tasks views are always personal, so there's no choice of who can see them.

Filter a view

Click Filter, or click an active filter, to open the filter panel.

• Quick filters add a common filter in one click. On a project's tasks they are All outstanding, Assigned to me, Due this week, Overdue and Hide subtasks. All Tasks adds Completed.
• Add filter adds a row: choose a field, an operator and a value. Operators depend on the field: Is, Is not, Is any of, Is none of, Contains, Starts with, Ends with, Is before, Is after, Is between, Is empty and Is not empty, plus Is greater than and Is less than where a page offers them.
• The × on a row removes it, and Clear all removes every row. Click Apply to use the filters.

Filters combine with and, so every row must match. To match either of two values, put both values in one row with Is any of.

Date filters can use a fixed date (Custom date…) or a relative one: Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday, the start or end of this week or month, or Days from today…. Relative dates move with the calendar, so an "Overdue" view is still correct next week. Weeks start on Monday.

Active filters appear on the toolbar next to Filter, joined by "and". Click the × on one to remove it. On tablets and phones only the first shows, with a + count for the rest.

When a filter needs your attention

• "1 restricted filter" or "+1 restricted": the view filters on something you don't have access to, such as a project you're not a member of. The filter still applies, which may be why the view looks emptier than you expect, but its value stays private. Remove it to widen the view for yourself.
• "no longer exists" or "+1 deleted": the filter points at something that has been deleted, such as a task type or a person. It matches nothing, so remove it or choose a new value.
• In Manage Columns, a message such as "Priority is hidden but still filtered" means a filter is using a column you've hidden.

Columns, grouping and sorting

Click Fields to open Manage Columns. In a list, the column icon at the right-hand end of the header row opens it too. Tick the columns to show and drag them into order. On a Board, you can show or hide fields but not reorder them, because the card layout is fixed. A Gantt has its own, shorter list of columns. A few columns are always on. Reset to defaults restores the layout's standard columns.

On many pages, a list view's Manage Columns has two tabs: Desktop & tablet and Mobile. On Mobile, choose the few columns to show on a phone: about three fit before the table scrolls. Freeze first column when scrolling keeps the first column in place as you scroll sideways.

Group splits the list into groups by a field, such as section, status, assignee, priority or due date on a project's tasks. The fields you can group and sort by depend on the page. Sort orders the list by any sortable field, ascending or descending.

Share views with your team

A shared view appears for everyone who can open that page, with the same name, filters and columns. It shares the setup, not the data: each person still sees only what their own permissions allow, so two people can see different rows in the same view.

To share a view, right-click its tab and choose Share, or choose Shared when you save it. Anyone who uses the page can share their own views. To make a shared view personal again, choose Unshare. A few rules:

• Only the view's creator can rename, share or delete it. Administrators can also rename, unshare and delete other people's shared views.
• If a shared view on the page already has the name, Avaza asks you for a new one.
• You can't share your last personal view on a page. Duplicate it first and share the copy.

Views on a project's tasks apply to every project. Create or change one on one project and it's there on all of them. That includes the built-in tabs: rename Board and it's renamed on every project. For a one-off setup, use Save as New.

Rename, reorder, hide and delete views

• Rename: double-click the tab, or right-click it and choose Rename.
• Reorder: open More › Manage views… and drag the rows. Your tab order is yours alone.
• Hide: right-click a view you don't use, such as a colleague's shared view, and choose Hide. It disappears from your tabs only. Show it again with the eye icon in Manage views…. You can't hide your last visible view.
• Delete: right-click the tab and choose Delete, then confirm. Deleting can't be undone, and deleting a shared view removes it for everyone. Each page keeps at least one personal view, so Delete isn't available on your last one. On Contacts, a company's page and Expenses, that applies to each list separately.

The built-in views, such as List, Board and Summary, are your own copies. You can rename, change, reorder or delete them like any other view without affecting anyone else. To get one back, add a view of the same type and set it up again.

Built-in views on each page