User Manuals

The layout of TM Master V2

Fig 1. (1)Top Text menu, (2) Top Tool bar, (3) Module group, (4) Modules, (5) View tabs, (6.) Grid Column head, (7) Grid Column, (8), Grid row.

How to use the basic grid tools?

TM Master V2 presents its data to you in lists or tables (similar to any spread sheet software), we refer to these list/table views as “the grid” or “grid view”. Using this grid view allows us to show as much data as possible in one view. But as a user you might not be looking for “...as much data as possible”, you are looking for the information you need. In order for you find this information, we have implemented some basic grid tools. Understanding these tools will enable you to locate the information you need.

These functions applies to almost all grids in the program, an exception worth mentioning is the [Inventory] à [Components] à”Structure” grid, where components are structured, and the filters and groupings only apply to the top levels. But by using the “List” view tab you can apply filters and groupings for all components.

Selecting and opening a row in a form view.

You can select any of the rows by clicking on them. If you double click the item in the list you will open the item, displaying all details in a form, or in some cases you will select them as your chosen item depending on the situation. You can by pressing and holding the [CTRL] key and clicking select more than one row. If you wish to unselect a selected row you can click the item again. You can also click an row holding the [Shift] key and then clicking an item further down or up in the list to select all rows in between the ones you have clicked. By pressing [CTRL] + [A] all rows in the view are selected.

Sorting

By clicking on any of the column heads (Fig 1. (6)) will sort the grid presented alphabetically based upon the values in the column you clicked. By clicking the column head a second time you will reverse the sort. A small arrow (or triangle) next to the column head name indicates the sort order. The arrow will point to the location where you will find the lowest value (top or bottom). You can sort the grid by any of the available columns.

Resize columns

By holding the mouse marker over the column head borders the mouse marker will change its appearance to (). This Indicates that you now can click, the left mouse button, hold and drag to resize the column on the left hand side of the mouse marker.

Move columns

If the order of the columns does not suit you, you can change the order the columns are displayed. You do this by clicking and holding the left mouse button, on top of the column head of the column you wish to move. You then drag it horizontally to the desired location. To small red arrows will appear informing you where the column will go when you release the left mouse button.

Remove columns from the grid

If you find that some of the columns displayed in the grid are irrelevant you can remove them from your view. You do this by clicking and holding your left mouse button while hovering over the column head of the column you wish to remove. Then drag your mouse marker up and out of the grid and release.

Add columns to the grid

Columns you remove, as described above, or sometimes additional columns not included in the default view, can be displayed by clicking the [Columns] button found in the top tool bar (Fig 1 (2)). By clicking it a list of the hidden columns will be displayed. You can add the available columns by either double clicking them or dragging and dropping them into the desired location. To hide the list of hidden columns click the [Columns] button again.

Freezing columns

In some views there are more columns available than what will fit on your screen, to view them you will need to scroll the horizontal scrollbar (found right below the grid). But once you start scrolling the first columns will disappear. Usually the first columns hold key information, and you may want to be able to see the first or the two first columns, while scrolling the rest. By right clicking on the column head of the column you want to stay put, and select “Freeze Column”. If you now scroll the grid using the horizontal scrollbar you will see that the column selected and all columns to the left of it will stay, while the rest of the columns scroll. Right clicking the column head again and selecting

“Unfreeze column” will release the columns.

Fig2: Frozen column

Search the grid

While the grid is active (you make a grid active by clicking in it), you can start typing. Once TM Master V2 detects typing when the grid has been made active it will assume that you wish to perform a search, and the “search” dialog will automatically appear.

Fig3: Search dialog

You can also access the search dialog by clicking the Search button found in the top menu bar. . This function will search all of the available columns, for the search string you provide, and it will stop at the first row containing your value. By clicking [Search] in the search dialog again, it will search for the next row containing the value. Once it has search through all your rows it will start searching from the top again.

Filter

Another way to locate the information you are looking for is to use the filter function. You turn it on by clicking the [Filter] button found in the top menu bar.. Once you click this button an off white/light yellow line appear below all the column heads, this is the filter bar. Clicking this line below one of the column head will allow you to type a string that you can filter the grid by. By adding a wildcard (the asterisk (*)) to the front of your filter string, it will show you all rows that ends with the string. Adding the wildcard to the front and the back of your string will display all rows that contain the string entered.

You can filter on any of the columns and use filters on multiple columns at the same time.

Filter Example:

Grouping

Another way to locate or rather organize your data is by using the grouping tool. The grouping tool allows you to group the rows on any of the column values. If two rows have the same value in the column you are grouping them on they are put in the same group. TM Master will count all the rows within every group and display the amount in brackets after the group name. You can also create any number of subgroups to your groups.

Grouping Example:

You wish to see a list of all your components supplied by certain makers

1. You click the [Group] button found in the top menu bar.

A dark grey line will appear just above the column heads in the grid.

Fig7: Grouping turned on (Dark grey line above column heads)

2. You left click and hold the column head you wish to group your data on.

3. Drag the column onto the grey “grouping banner”, two red arrows will indicate when you are holding the column head in the correct area, when you see the red arrows you may release the left mouse button. The list is now grouped on the selected column.

Fig8: List grouped on the column “Maker”

4. A group is displayed in the grid as blue lines with a [+] signs in front. The group name is also displayed followed by the number of rows found within this group.

Fig9: Example of a group, displaying the column name, group name and the amount of rows in the group.

Save your grid settings

Some of your grid configurations are only settings you use to get information then and there, but you might find that you keep reusing some of your configuration several times and you would find that setting up the grid again and again is a bit annoying and time consuming. To avoid spending time configuring the grid, you can set it up once and then save the configurations, and easily switch between them. Here is how you do it:

Configure your view the way you require.

(Move, add or remove columns. Filter or group your rows)

Then click on the [Save layout] button found in the top menu bar.
Enter a name for your view and click [Ok]
You can now switch between the “default” view and the view you just created by using the drop down selector found on the he left hand side of the [Save layout] button.

Fig12: View selector

To delete any of your saved settings, you will need to go to your personal settings module called “[Your Name]’s place” à [Filters] and delete them. More details on this can be found in the section covering that module group.

Reset your grid

If you wish to reset the grid back to the default configuration, removing all your settings, you can do that by either selecting the “Default” option found in the view selector described in the section above (4), or you can right click anywhere in the grid and select “Reset grid columns”

Copy from the grid

To copy data from the grid to an external program do the following.

Select the rows you want to copy
A) Press and hold the [CTRL] key and press [C] or

B) Right click the selected row or rows and select “Copy content to clipboard”

Open the program you wish to copy the data to .i.e. MS Excel
Paste. By pressing the [CTRL] + [V] or right click and select “Paste”

Fig13: Data copied from TM Master V2 spare part grid to Excel, the column header names are as you can see also copied