The Daylite 4 interface has brought many changes and improvements in the flow of it’s interface and the way data is accessed. The default list view works well for much of one’s typical day to day use. But the Multi-Column List view gives users even more control over how data is displayed and how that data is sorted. Some of it’s abilities are not immediately obvious for new users.
Toggle View Modes
In most sections of Daylite immediately to the left of the search field, there is a toggle to switch the view from the standard list view to multi-column view. If you’ve not used this view before, you’ll only see minimal information – in the People view for example, only the first name and last name will initially be visible. The trick is to right or control-click in the column header to reveal a contextual menu of all fields available for that type of record. Do this multiple times to expose all the data you’re interested in. Also note that Daylite will remember which columns are viewable for each list, Smart List or otherwise, independently of one another.
Sorting and Arranging Columns
Columns in this mode can be re-ordered by clicking and dragging them to suit. Like any list view in Mac OS X, hovering over the divider between two columns allows you to change their width. Clicking on a column header changes the data to be sorted by that column. Clicking again changes the direction of the sort from ascending to descending, indicated by the arrow pointing up or down.
Now here’s the trick: Hold down option and click on a different column to have an additional sort criteria. Potential uses for this might be to sort people by their company and then using their role as a secondary sort to group all similar roles together. Or sort people by company region and then department. The possibilities are endless.
Print List Views
Once you’ve got things arranged just so, select the rows you want (or all of them using command-A) and from the File menu, select Print. In the left column choose the List option to display your multi-column view as a printable table. If the display is not quite right, click close and go back and adjust the width and arrangement of your columns. When everything is looking good, click Print and then from the PDF menu, select Save As PDF…
