TimeMaker Matrix Lesson 5 - Understanding Filters

TM Matrix Lesson 5 – Understanding Filters

Prerequisites:

1. Study Redirected Items and Plans Lesson.

The filters in the Matrix are not only helpful, but very useful and practical. Let’s take a look.

At the left of the Matrix toolbar we have the Filters button. Clicking on the Filters button will show or hide the Filters Panel to the left. It doesn’t apply any filter, just shows or hides the panel from which to operate the various filters.

Clicking on the arrow on the right of one of the filter names will open that filter. Let’s open the “Owner” filter. You can see a list of all TimeMaker users in the company.

Here we can see the Filter Tool Bar.

Now for an example: We’ll type “Meir” into the box – Meir’s name is filtered out. Clicking on this check box next to “Meir” will apply the filter, and the Matrix will show all items where Meir is the Owner.

Let’s also open the Performer filter and type “Gal” in the search box. Pressing Enter will select the first name on the filtered list – in this case “Gal”. The Matrix shows us now all items where the Owner is Meir and the Performer is Gal.

You will notice that the filter selection is presented at the TimeMaker Info Bar to the top of the Matrix.

Clicking once on the “No Filter” button at the left of the Matrix Tool Bar will clear all filter applications. However, notice the items within the filter are still selected – in our case “Meir” in the Owner’s filter and “Gal” in the Performer’s filter. Clicking again on the “No Filter” button will fully clear the selected items within the filters.

By default, when you type the text of a name into the filter search box here it will cause all users that do not match the typed text to be hidden or filtered out. Clicking the “Switch between Search/Filter” button as you see here will allow you to type a text within the search box and find the required name while still showing all the other users as well. The difference here is one option eliminates all other users and the other locates your user, but leaves all others options still there.

The next button is the “Show TimeMaker Users” button. Unselecting this button (it is selected by default) will hide all the TimeMaker users and will show only e-mail users. Clicking again on this button will again show the TimeMaker users.

The next button is the “Show E-mails” button. Unselecting this button (it is selected by default) will hide all the e-mail users and will show only the TimeMaker users. Clicking again on this button will again show the e-mail users.

Next is the “Filter to Checked Users” button. Suppose we manually selected a few users on a filter. Since there are a few and are spread out, they are not all visible within the window of the filter. Clicking this button shows the selected users at the top of the visible window of the filter. Now by unselecting this button, it keeps the previously selected items at the top of the filter but now also shows the rest of the users as well.

Next is the “Invert Selection” button. Here you can ask to make all selected items unselected while all unselected items become selected.

Next is the “Clear Selection” button. Clicking this button will clear all the checks from all items on that filter.

Next is the “Show Inactive Users” button. Clicking this button will show TimeMaker users that are not active. Not active users are those users that are registered in the TimeMaker system, but do not have login approval anymore – for example a past employee. This button can be useful in order to filter out Tasks which weren’t completed by employees who previously worked in the company. Now you know what still needs to get done.

The next button is the “Show Junior of User” button. First select a user whom juniors you want to see, then click on the “Show Junior of User” button. The filter gets applied to the original user AND all his juniors.

Now… what if you wanted to see all the Mini Operations where Adam is either the Owner or the Performer?

Well, for that we have the “And/Or” button on each of the filters, and we’ll go over this in a moment.

First of all, we’ll open the “Kind” filter. We’ll select mini operation, snd notice, that only once we’ve made a selection, the “and/or” shows up, up here. Clicking on the “And/Or” button will toggle between the AND, and the OR. If you are seeing “OR” it means “or” is active. If you are seeing “AND” it means it’s operating as “and”. The Matrix works with the filters in logical order calculating what makes sense with the “ands” and the “ors”, and I’ll show you this in a moment as well.

So, in the example of all Mini Operations where Adam is either the Owner or the Performer, the next thing we need to do is go to “Performer”. And we find and select Adam and then we’ll click on the “and/or” button so “or” is visible. Then we’ll go to the Owner filter, click on it, select Adam and we’ll make sure “or” is visible here as well. So, in essence, what the Matrix reads is, “Show all Mini Operations and with the filter of Adam being a Performer of the filter of Adam being the Owner.”

As you can see, here Adam is the Performer and the Owner of this Mini Operation, while here he is just the Performer. It filtered it just as we wanted.


The applications are endless with the filters...

You can show only items in your inbox, or for example you can show all the Completed items ever. This is done by selecting the “Completed On Time” and “Completed Beyond Target Date” at the filter titled Status. And so on…

Now, let’s say we have a filter set up which we use a lot or just like and we do not want to keep on doing the same selection over and over again each time, we can save that set up. I’ll explain this by use of an example. Suppose you wanted to see all the items assigned to your team. What you would do is select all the names of your team in the Performer filter and then click the down arrow next to the Filter button at the top. Then click the “Save Current Settings” button and simply name the Filter – let’s name it “Meir’s Team”, and click OK. The filter was saved and it is easily accessible by clicking the down arrow next to the Filter – you will see the “Meir’s Team” saved filter. In the future when you would click it, the appropriate people will be selected at the Performer filter and the Matrix will show your team. Of course the TimeMaker Info Bar shows the filter’s name – Meir’s Team. One can also save much more complex filters. Ah the Details of TimeMaker! Very powerful…