Things Learned at GPUG Summit 2011

We had a great time at Summit 2011 in Las Vegas last week.  In addition to the awesome learning experience at Summit, my much better half Sheila and I took some time to drive out to the Grand Canyon, tour Hoover Dam, walk up and down the Vegas Strip a couple of times and even visit the Pawn Stars Shop!

I taught a couple of classes and provided a couple more presentations.  One of the reasons I like doing these things is because I always learn something new about GP that I've never seen before.  This particular tidbit of knowledge is courtesy of Kristen Tennant of WEL Companies in Wisconsin who attended my Beyond the Basics - Financials class.

I've known for quite some time how useful the Navigation Lists that became available in GP 10 are.  What I didn't realize is that these lists can be customized in very much the same manner as you create SmartList Favorites.  Here's how you do it:

1. Open the Navigation List you want to customize

2. Click on the list name and select 'Save As'

3. In the Save As box, give the list a new name like 'My Account Transactions'

4. Click OK

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Now you have a new Navigation List called My Account Transactions that you can customize.

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When you click on Customize, the List View Customization window opens where you can add or remove Columns, modify the Action Pane associated with your list, modify list Sharing settings and more.

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For example, click on the blue arrow next to Columns to open the Columns Details window:

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And if none of these options suit your list needs, you can always use Navigation List Builder to create a custom list from scratch.  Navigation List Builder works very similarly to SmartList Builder and is available as an option under the SmartList Builder menu.

Thank you so much Kristen for this very useful tip!!

GPTip42day - Taking the 'Pane' out of Grouping SmartLists

I've never been a big fan of the Navigation Pane in GP9 and prior versions. I just don't like anything taking up my precious desktop space. However, I've found a great use for it.

As you probably know, there is no easy way (perhaps no way at all - I've tried but gave up) to group unrelated SmartLists. Here's the business case -

Client has many branches, with branch ID's ranging from 901 to 935. Each of these branches has 8-10 SmartList Favorites that are identical across branches except they are each defined to be specific to a branch ID. Most are Field Service SmartLists, with a couple Inventory Item SmartLists and a Project SmartList in the mix. Needless to say, multiplying 8-10 SmartList Favorites by 35 branches makes for one large list of Favorites to have to wade through for each branch to find their own.

The solution I came up with was to use the Navigation Pane Shortcuts. Using this tool, you can setup a folder or folders to contain the unrelated SL Favorites for each branch and group them all in the folder. This way, all each user has to do is open that Shortcut folder and voila! there are all their Favorites grouped in one spot.

All you have to do is right click on the Shortcuts Folder and select Add>Folder.  Then rename the folder to suit your needs.  Next, right click on your new folder and select Add>SmartList.  The Add SmartList Favorite Shortcut window opens.  You select the SmartList you want added to the folder and click Done.

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That's all there is to it.

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I'd love someone to tell me there's a way to do this in SmartList or SL Builder but until they do, I'll be recommending this method of SmartList grouping.