For those of us who have been using Cobra 5 and 5.1 for many years, the upgrade to Cobra 8.1 has some very appealing Saving Views feature enhancements. The most welcome of these, from a ‘user interaction’ standpoint, is the ability to save a named view.
Before Cobra 8.1, there was a frustrating user interaction feature whereby the view was saved along with the project. So if you created a new project, or even copied an existing one, (a common practice during monthly updates for most users) the view columns in the CAWP tables would reset back to default. This forces the user to completely start from scratch with their view setup, inserting a deleting columns as required.
With the release of Deltek Cobra 8.1 however, we [the users] can break out the champagne with Saving Views. You can now save your view as a named view, to be recalled whenever you want a particular arrangement of fields.
It’s dead simple to use. I will show you right now.
Take a look at the new Views button to the far left of the Project Edit ribbon.
The current view is displayed at the top and then we see the other saved project views below that. At the bottom we see the Save View feature and the Manage Views feature.
Before we use this button, let’s make some changes to the current view in the CAWP area.
I’m going to turn off the ‘Show Assignments’ area to remove the resources from the table and leave just the control accounts and work packages present.
Next I’ll remove the Resource column from the table area.
Now I’ll insert some of the common EV fields I like to see in the table. These include the Planned, Earned, Actuals, SV, CV, SPI and CPI columns.
Finally I will drag and drop the headers to arrange the columns how I want in the table area.
When the screen is to my requirements, it’s time to save the view. In the view menu, I click on the Save View option.
In the Save Current View As dialog, I’ll enter a name and a description for the view to help remind me what it contains.
Whenever I wish to call up this view again, I simply return to the view button and select it.
Cobra prompts you to save or not save the current view whenever you are changing views in the system. I generally don’t save so as not to update a view I have previously created.
Managing Views
Cobra 8.1 allows you to manage the various views you have created using the Manage Views dialog. In here you can delete views and also assign them to other users, groups or roles to make them global.
Other Facts about Saved Views
- Saved views are only available to projects. There are no view options for ancillary files or other areas of the Cobra interface.
- Views save the selected columns, their order on screen, and their widths.
- Views save any sorting or filtering that you are using at the time of saving.
- Views do not save the quick access toolbar selections. These are saved with the user login.
- Views do not save the height of the lower half of the screen.
Summary
Saving Views is a wonderful addition to the interaction capabilities of Deltek Cobra 8.1 and I can’t imagine any users not being pleased to finally see this feature in place. It’s a huge time-saving feature and will be especially valuable when used in conjunction with the new filter features added to the column headers.