QuickBase: The Missing Manual

QuickBase: The Missing Manual

by Nancy Conner
Released March 2007
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596529604

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Buy on Amazon Buy on ebooks.com
Start your free trial

Book description

Ready to put Intuit's QuickBase to work? Our new Missing Manual shows you how to capture, modify, share, and manage data and documents with this web-based data-sharing program quickly and easily. No longer do you have to coordinate your team through a blizzard of emails or play frustrating games of "guess which document is the right one."

QuickBase saves your organization time and money, letting you manage and share the information that makes your business tick: sales figures, project timelines, drafts of documents, purchase or work requests--whatever information you need to keep business flowing smoothly.

QuickBase: The Missing Manual shows you how to choose among QuickBase's dozens of ready-made applications (mini-databases, essentially) and how to customize one to fit your needs exactly. You'll also learn to assign people different roles within the application. The guide also shows you how to:

  • Capture and modify data: Whatever kind of data you need to store--sales leads, catalog listings, project milestones, workflow checklists--you can use QuickBase's forms to record and organize that data so it makes sense to you.
  • Filter, sort, and group data: Easily find the records that match your criteria, and then sort those records into groups that make their relationships clear.
  • Display your data: QuickBase uses different views (Table, Grid Edit, Summary/Crosstab, Calendar, Chart, and Timeline) to display and summarize data. Switching between them is easy, like taking tasks listed in a table and displaying them as a timeline.
  • Create reports: Print out a hard copy, embed charts in the annual report, or email this month's sales numbers.

Because Intuit frequently introduces new features to QuickBase, you'll find updates to this book at our Missing Manual web site so you can benefit from the latest technology and user suggestions right away.

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
    1. What You Can Do with QuickBase
    2. What You Need to Get Started
      1. A QuickBase Account
      2. Browser Requirements
    3. About This Book
      1. About the Outline
    4. The Very Basics
      1. About→These→Arrows
      2. Safari® Books Online
  2. 1. Signing Up and Taking a Quick Tour
    1. Creating an Account
      1. Creating a New Account
      2. Accepting an Invitation
      3. Signing In
        1. Forgot your password?
        2. Signing out
    2. Using Your My QuickBase Page
      1. Viewing and Organizing Your Applications
        1. Using categories to organize your applications
        2. Hiding an application from My QuickBase
        3. Restoring an application you’ve hidden
      2. Keeping Tabs on Your Data: Using the Home Tab
        1. Adding a Report to the Home Tab
        2. Adding a Text Box to the Home Tab
        3. Working with Elements on the Home Tab
      3. Managing Your Account Information
        1. Edit user information
        2. Edit user preferences
        3. Change password
        4. Manage user accounts
        5. Manage application tokens
      4. Managing Your Billing Account
        1. Summary tab
        2. Applications tab
        3. Groups tab
        4. Permissions tab
        5. Deny tab
        6. Users with Access tab
      5. Alert! Alert!
    3. Getting Started with Applications
      1. Open an Existing Report
      2. View a Record
      3. Add or Modify a Record
        1. Modify a record
      4. Find an Existing Record
      5. Find a Record You’ve Worked on Recently
      6. Create or Modify a Report
        1. Create a new report
        2. Modify a report you’ve created
      7. Stay on Top of Things with Email Notifications
      8. Get Help When You Need It
  3. 2. Different Ways of Displaying Your Data
    1. QuickBase’s Report Formats
      1. Table Reports
      2. Grid Edit Reports
      3. Summary and Crosstab Reports
      4. Calendar Reports
      5. Chart Reports
      6. Timeline Reports
    2. Creating, Editing, and Printing Reports
      1. Creating a Report from Scratch
      2. Edit, Copy, or Delete a Report
        1. Editing a report
        2. Copying a report
        3. Deleting a report
      3. Print a Report
    3. Tips for Creating Specific Report Types
      1. Table Reports
      2. Summary and Crosstab Reports
      3. Calendar Reports
      4. Chart Reports
        1. Pie charts
        2. Bar charts
        3. Line charts
        4. Area charts
      5. Timeline Reports
  4. 3. Working with Data and Documents
    1. Getting Data and Documents into QuickBase
      1. Adding a New Record
      2. Copying a Record
      3. Importing Data into QuickBase
        1. Import using copy and paste
        2. Import from a file
      4. Tips and Tricks for Importing Data
        1. Cleaning up Your Spreadsheet
        2. Importing into a Multi-Table Application
          1. Organizing your data
          2. Importing data into a master table
        3. Keeping master records and details records together
        4. Importing data to the details table
      5. Adding Documents
    2. Finding, Changing, and Exporting Data
      1. Finding Information
        1. Search for an application
        2. Search for information inside an application
        3. Fine-tune your searches with Advanced Find
        4. Save search results
      2. Searching for Data and Replacing It
        1. Use Search and Replace for a User field
        2. Use Search and Replace for a checkbox field
        3. Search and Replace for other kinds of data
      3. Modifying an Existing Record
      4. Deleting Records
        1. Delete a bunch of records from an application
        2. Delete all the records in an application
      5. Exporting Data
    3. Editing and Collaborating on Documents
      1. Finding a Document
      2. Reserving a Document
        1. Release a reservation
      3. Viewing a Document’s Revision History
      4. Restoring a Previous Version
      5. Managing the Revisions List
      6. Deleting a Version of a Document
  5. 4. Report Sharing, Change Notifications, and Reminders
    1. Sending Reports to Yourself and Others
      1. Quickly Emailing Individual Reports
      2. Printing Reports
      3. Creating Report Subscriptions
        1. Subscribing to reports for yourself
        2. Sending subscriptions to others
    2. Modifying Report Subscriptions
      1. Editing a Subscription
      2. Temporarily Disabling a Subscription
      3. Deleting a Subscription
    3. Triggering Change Notification Emails
      1. Signing Up for Emails for Yourself
      2. Sending Notification Emails to Others
      3. Editing, Disabling, and Deleting Email Notifications
    4. Sending Reminders
      1. Creating Reminders
      2. Editing, Disabling, and Deleting Reminders
    5. Customizing Your QuickBase Emails
      1. Customizing the Text of Your Notification Emails
      2. Customizing the Look of Your Notification Emails
    6. Using vCard and iCalendar with QuickBase
  6. 5. Planning Your QuickBase Solution
    1. Defining the Problem
      1. Clarifying Your Problem
      2. Identifying Your Objectives
    2. Exploring Your Workflow
      1. A Typical Day in the Life of a Task
        1. Example 1: Distribution company
        2. Example 2: IT department
    3. Tracking Information
      1. What Information Do You Need to Track?
        1. Example 1: Distribution company
        2. Example 2: IT department
      2. What Information Do People Need?
        1. Example 1: Distribution company
        2. Example 2: IT department
    4. Keeping the Team on Track
      1. How Does Your Team Know What to Do and When?
        1. Example 1: Distribution company
        2. Example 2: IT department
      2. How Do You Know When the Work’s Done?
    5. From Planning to Application
      1. Start from a Prebuilt Application
      2. Design Your Own Application
      3. Consider the QuickBase Enterprise Edition
  7. 6. Using QuickBase’s Prebuilt Applications
    1. A Tour of QuickBase’s Application Templates
      1. Project Management
      2. Sales Management
      3. Customer Management
      4. Marketing
      5. Professional Services
      6. Employee and Training Management
      7. IT and Back Office
      8. Legal
      9. Real Estate
      10. Process Excellence (Six Sigma)
    2. Templates in Action: Three Examples
      1. National Sales Management
      2. Residential Property Management
      3. Project Management
    3. Creating an Application from a Template
      1. The Getting Started Guide
      2. The Dashboard Page
    4. Adapting a Template to Suit Your Needs
      1. Customizing an Application’s Appearance
      2. Customizing Fields and Tables
        1. Add a field
        2. Add a field in a specific spot
        3. Modify a field
        4. Delete a field
        5. Add a table
  8. 7. Creating Your Own Application
    1. Building a New Application
      1. Single-Table or Multi-Table?
      2. Creating a Single-Table Application: Spreadsheet Style
        1. Assigning field types
      3. Creating a Multi-Table Application: Database Style
        1. Creating relationships between tables
    2. Creating an Application by Importing Data
      1. Copying and Pasting
      2. Importing a File
      3. Importing from Microsoft Project
    3. Modifying an Application’s Properties
    4. Give Your Application’s Users a Guided Tour
      1. Creating a User Guide for Your Application
      2. Tips and Tricks for Working with User Guides
        1. Adding Images to a Guide
        2. Creating More than Three Guides
  9. 8. Managing Applications
    1. The Administrator’s Dashboard
      1. Customizing Your Dashboard
        1. Heading
        2. Buttons
        3. Left Column
        4. Main Column
        5. Rearranging Dashboard sections
        6. Deleting Dashboard sections
    2. Sharing an Application
      1. Basic Sharing
      2. Inviting Users
      3. Bulk Sharing
      4. Sharing with Everyone in Your Organization
      5. Converting Placeholders to Real People
    3. Adding and Modifying Fields
      1. Adding Fields
      2. Modifying Fields
        1. Renaming a field
        2. Reordering fields in the default report
        3. Reordering fields in an existing Table report
        4. Editing a field’s properties
        5. Changing a field’s type
        6. Seeing how much use a field is getting
        7. Hiding a field from Quick Find searches
        8. Duplicating a field
        9. Deleting a field
        10. Creating Conditional Drop-Down Lists
      3. Applying Field Restrictions
        1. Restricting access from the Fields tab of the Tables page
        2. Restricting access from the Roles page
    4. Creating Dependencies
    5. Deleting an Application
      1. From the My QuickBase page
      2. From the application you’re deleting
      3. From your Billing Account page (billing account administrators only)
    6. Managing Tables
      1. Adding a Table to an Application
        1. Add a new table
        2. Absorb an existing table
      2. Managing an Application’s Tables
        1. Properties tab
        2. Fields tab
        3. Relationships tab
        4. Forms tab
        5. Reports tab
        6. Emails tab
        7. Permissions tab
    7. Using QuickBase Enterprise Edition
      1. A Realm of One’s Own
      2. Establishing Your Realm
        1. Setting access levels
        2. Setting password policies
        3. Setting sign-in policies
        4. Customizing your realm
      3. Mastering Your Realm
        1. Maintaining the realm
          1. Budgeting and Controlling Expenses
          2. Monitor Usage and Growth
          3. Monitor Application Managers
          4. Find Inactive Users and Applications
        2. Controlling access to the realm
          1. Monitor External Access
          2. Monitor General Access
        3. Restricting an application to approved users
        4. Turning on IP filtering
    8. Enhancing an Application’s Security with Tokens
      1. Step 1: Create a Token
      2. Step 2: Assign the Token to an Application
  10. 9. Managing Roles and Groups
    1. Managing Roles
      1. QuickBase’s Built-in Roles
        1. Modify an existing role
      2. Creating a Brand-New Role
      3. Assigning a Role
      4. Prioritizing Roles
      5. Creating Different Dashboard Pages for Different Roles
        1. Assigning a Dashboard to a role
      6. Adjusting What Roles Can See and Do
        1. Hiding tables or buttons
        2. Preventing multiple-record edits
        3. Hiding buttons on the menu bar
        4. Custom Access to Fields
          1. Customizing Access
        5. Restricting reports
        6. Restricting a user’s ability to save reports
        7. Changing someone’s role
        8. Copying a role
        9. Deleting a role
    2. Managing Groups
      1. Creating a Group and Adding Members
      2. Designating Group Managers
      3. Nested Groups
      4. Making Changes to Groups
        1. See who’s in a group
        2. See which applications the group can access
        3. Assign a group a role
        4. Copy a group
        5. Delete a group
        6. Change a group’s name or description
  11. 10. Creating Relationships Between Tables
    1. How Table Relationships Work
      1. The One-to-Many Relationship
    2. Creating a Relationship
      1. Creating a Relationship Across Applications
      2. Adding a Master Record from the Details Table
      3. Adding a Field to a Relationship
      4. Deleting a Field from a Relationship
        1. Deleting a relationship
    3. Deleting Related Records
    4. Working with Advanced Fields
      1. Lookup Fields
      2. Snapshot Fields
      3. Shared Multiple-Choice Fields
        1. Sharing an existing multiple-choice field
        2. Creating a new shared multiple-choice field
      4. Summary Fields
      5. Report Link Fields
        1. Create a Report Link field when creating a relationship
        2. Create a Report Link field between existing tables
  12. 11. Automating QuickBase with Formulas, Forms, and Dynamic Rules
    1. Writing Formulas
      1. The Parts of a Formula
      2. Understanding Data Types
      3. Creating a Formula Field
      4. Formula Writing Basics
        1. Example 1: Calculate a Minimum Payment
        2. Example 2: Keep a Countdown to a Project’s Launch Date
        3. Example 3: List a Name and Mailing Address in Standard Address Format
      5. Using Special Functions in Formulas
        1. The If Function
        2. The Case() Function
        3. Null Values
      6. The Fields & Functions Menu
      7. Using Variables in Formulas
      8. Using Formulas to Design Reports
      9. Troubleshooting Formulas
    2. Customizing Forms
      1. Creating a Custom Form
      2. Working with Embedded Reports
        1. Embed a report within a form
        2. Edit an embedded report
      3. Dynamic Forms
        1. Set the condition
        2. Specify the action
      4. Using Form Rules to Create Nested Multiple-Choice Lists
    3. Collecting Data via Web Page Forms
      1. First Things First: Setting up Your Application
        1. Creating a role
        2. Assigning users to the new role you just created
        3. Checking your application’s table
      2. The Form Creation Wizard
      3. Customizing Your Form
    4. The QuickBase API
      1. What Can the QuickBase API Do?
      2. Online API Resources
        1. Community Forum
  13. 12. Exact Forms: Creating Sophisticated Documents
    1. Downloading and Opening the Template
      1. Downloading the Exact Forms Template
      2. Open the Template
    2. Designing Exact Forms
      1. Using Field Codes to Place Information
      2. Inserting a Date Using Formulas
      3. Adding an Image Stored in QuickBase
        1. Inserting images from QuickBase records
        2. Adding the same image to every document
      4. Inserting a Table of Detail Records
      5. Choosing Which Columns Appear in an Embedded Table
    3. Saving Your Exact Form
    4. Printing Your Documents from an Exact Form
    5. Editing an Exact Form
      1. Deleting an Exact Form
  14. 13. Switching from Microsoft Access to QuickBase
    1. Why Make the Switch?
      1. Ease of Use
      2. Sharing Data
      3. Keeping Your Data Secure
      4. Ending Maintenance Headaches
      5. When You’re Ready to Learn More
    2. Getting Started
    3. Working with Tables
      1. Creating a Table
      2. Working with Table Fields
        1. Editing a Field in a QuickBase Table
        2. Writing Formulas
      3. Relating Tables
    4. Working with Forms
      1. Adding a New Record
      2. Editing an Existing Record
      3. Editing a Form
    5. Finding and Displaying Data
      1. Querying a Table
      2. Creating Reports in QuickBase
  15. The Missing Credits
    1. About the Author
    2. About the Creative Team
  16. Index
  17. About the Author
  18. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: QuickBase: The Missing Manual
  • Author(s): Nancy Conner
  • Release date: March 2007
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596529604