QuickBase: The Missing Manual

Chapter 2. Different Ways of Displaying Your Data

Like any self-respecting program, QuickBase is considerate enough to let you look at your data in whatever way makes most sense to you. From Excel-style tables to calendars, charts, and timelines, QuickBase’s wide range of built-in reports lets you sort, organize, and display your content almost any way you like. If you can imagine it, QuickBase probably has a report to make your vision appear onscreen.

And the best part is how flexible these reports are. Don’t like a crowded table with too many columns? QuickBase lets you choose the columns you want to display. Going for a high-impact graphic to illustrate sales trends at a glance? No problem. Or perhaps you want to find out which project tasks are on track—and which have fallen behind; just whip yourself up a custom report and, with the click of a link, you (and your co-workers) can see your handiwork.

Creating a custom report (Creating a Report from Scratch) does take a little bit of work. So before you get your hands dirty trying to design your own, the first part of this chapter takes you on a quick tour of QuickBase’s standard report formats: the table, the calendar, the chart, and the timeline.

Plus, every built-in application comes loaded with ready-to-use reports based on the standard formats. For example, the Track Tasks application has a My Tasks report, which presents all your assignments in an easy-to-read table. Once you learn your way around one table, you’ll find it ...