A database view displays one or more database records on the same page. A view can display some or all of the database fields. Views have filters to determine which records they show. Views can be sorted to control the record order and grouped to display records in related sets. Views have other options such as totals and subtotals.
Most users interact with the database using the database views. A key to creating a useful database is a well-chosen set of views. Luckily, while views are powerful, they are also easy to create.
Let's start by looking at an example view called Location from a Training Schedule database. This view shows the 2003 training schedule, sorted by the cities where the classes were held:
All the views available for a database appear in the view selector (the View by list).
You can customize all aspects of a view, including:
The name of the view
The fields that appear in the view
The column title for each field in the view
The order of the fields in the view
The width of columns in the view, as well as the overall width of the view
The set of records that appear in the view (Filtering)
The order in which records are displayed in the view (Sorting & Grouping)
Column totals for numeric and currency fields (Totaling & Subtotaling)
In addition to seeing the view on screen, users can also print out the view on paper. They can do this using the built-in print button or by using a defined report, which allows you to customize details of the print out.
There are two ways to create a new view in your database. You can:
Create a new view from scratch.
Or, make a copy of an existing view and then modify it.
To create a new view:
On the Manage Database page, click Views.
Click New in the Command Bar.
Set the view properties. Read more.
Click Save in the Command Bar.
To make a copy of a view:
On the Manage Database page, click Views.
Click the Copy icon 
next to the
view you want to copy.
Modify the view properties as needed. Read more.
Click Save in the Command Bar.
Here is a list of view properties and what they control.
The name of the view. This is the name users see in the View By list.
The default view is the view users first see when they open the database. The default view should be the most frequently used view the default view. Users can switch to other views by selecting them from the View by list.
Note: A database must always have a default view. If you want to delete a view that's currently specified as the default view, you must first make another view the default view.
The database buttons and fields that are selected will appear as columns in the database view. Check any quick access buttons you would like to see added to your database views.
To add columns to a view:
Click a field in the Choose Columns list.
Click the Add to View button. The field appears in the Order Columns bar directly below the Choose Columns list.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each field you want to add to the view.
Note: The Choose Columns list shown above includes an example of a compound field, the Name field. Click here to learn more about using compound fields in a view.
As you add columns to the view, you can use the Order Columns bar to:
Change the column order in the view
Rename column titles in the view
Remove columns from the view
Change the width of columns in the view
To reorder a column in a view:
In the Order Columns bar, click the column you want to move. The selected column highlights.
To move the column left, click <- Move once for each position to the left.
To move the column right, click Move -> once for each position to the right.
You can change the title of a column as it appears in the view. For example, to simplify the view, you may want to abbreviate a column titled "Contact's Name" to say "Name" instead.
To change the name of a column title:
In the Order Columns bar, click the column you want to rename. The selected column highlights.
Click the Rename button.
In the text box that appears, type the new title for the column, and then click Save.
To change the title of another column, click the column, type the new title, and then click Save.
When you're finished changing column titles, click Close.
Note: When you rename a column title, you are not changing the name of the field that is displayed in the column. You are just changing the title of the column in the view. If you would like to change the field name throughout the database, edit the field name using the field properties.
To remove a column from the view:
In the Order Columns bar, click the column you want to remove. The selected column highlights.
Click on the Remove button.
To adjust the width of a column, just drag and drop the column separator by:
Moving the mouse over the right edge of the column you wish to adjust.
When the mouse displays as an arrow, click and hold the button down.
While holding the button down, move the mouse right to expand the width or left to contract the width.
When the column width is the size you would like, release the button.
Normally, when a user works with a database, the total width of a view dynamically adjusts to fit the size of their browser window. When there are many columns in a view, you may wish the view to be wider than the browser window. You can do this by setting a fixed width for the view. Users might need to scroll to see all the columns in a view that you've set to a fixed width.
To set a fixed view width:
Under Specify View Width, choose the x pixels radio button.
Type a number that specifies the width in pixels in the box provided. To get a better feel for pixel widths, take a look at the sample bar to the right of the Show Me button.
Click Show Me to resize the Order Columns bar, which will allow you to both see the new fixed view size and resize the columns based on that new size.
Any time you want to change back to a dynamically sized width, check the Fit to browser window radio button.
Click Save in the Command Bar.
Specifies how the records are ordered in the view.
You can sort fields in the view alphabetically or numerically. Most often, you'll want to sort by the first field in the view, but you can sort on any of the fields in the database. You can sort by up to three fields and you can specify whether sorted records appear in ascending (a-z, 0-9) or descending (z-a, 9-0) order.
In the following example, records are sorted in ascending alphabetical order by country, and, within each country, in descending alphabetical order by state.
To set up view sorting:
Under Sorting & Grouping, select a field from the Sort by list.
Select either ascending or descending from the order list to the right of the field you just selected.
(Optional) To sort by more than one field, repeat steps 1 and 2 for each additional sorting level.
To remove a sorting level from the view:
Under Sorting & Grouping, locate the field you no longer want to sort by.
Select Choose Field from the Sort by list.
If you remove all the sorting levels, the view displays the records in no specific order.
You can organize records in a view into related sets of records called groups. The view will show all the records in the first group, followed by the second group and so on, and will allow you to group up to ten fields. You can determine which field to group the view on and whether the groups should be shown in ascending or descending order. You can also sort the records inside each group.
For example, in this fundraising database, donors are grouped by year. Within each year, they are sorted by state, and then by last name.
To display your data in groups:
Under Sorting & Grouping, select the field you'd like to group by from the Group by list.
Select either ascending or descending from the order list to the right of the field you selected.
TIP: If you are grouping based on a field, there is no need to also sort based on that field. The order you specify for the group is all you need.
One of the benefits of arranging your data into groups is that you can easily show a subtotal for each group. When you subtotal, you choose one of the numeric fields in the database. The values in that field are added together and displayed on the last line of the grouping.
Click here to learn how to create subtotals.
Determines which records to display in the view, based on criteria you set. For example, you can create a view for your Sales Leads database that shows only sales leads located in Boston. The following picture shows the filter you would create for this view.
The filter should read as a sentence. In this example, the sentence is The Work Address.City is equal to Boston. Translated into English, that's The sales lead is located in Boston.
You can filter by up to six fields and you can combine them using AND or OR. If you combine filter levels using AND, then the filter becomes more specific. For example, The sales lead is located in California AND the sales contact is the President of the company. If you combine filter levels using OR, then the filter becomes more general. For example, The sales lead is located in California OR in Oregon OR in Washington.
TIP: The filter operators "empty" and "not empty" do not use the filter value.
The "contains" and "does not contain" operators work by searching on date values in the format of Mon dd yyyy. With these two filters, you can also specify just the month or just the year. For example, "Birthday contains Aug" will show all birthdays in the month of August. For more information about creating date filters, click here.
To create a rolling filter that perpetually moves forward a set number of days in the future, you can set the date equal to X number of days in the future or Y days in the past. For instance, if you have a 10 day work week, and you want to set up a view that show 7 days in the future and 3 days in the past at all times, your filter would look like this:
In multi-level filters, the AND operator has precedence over the OR operator. That is, filter levels are combined using AND first, and then using OR. An example would be a view that filters for very promising sales leads:
"The lead value is > $100,000" OR "The lead value is > $50,000" AND "The lead source is the CEO"
In this example the second and third levels are combined using AND, prior to being combined with the first filter level using OR. Expressed algebraically using parentheses:
(value > 100000) OR ((value > 50000) AND (title = "CEO"))
A view that shows only sales leads located in California might look like this:
To create a filter:
In the Filtering section, click Show only items where: .
Select a field from the Choose Field list.
Select an operation for the field from the list in the center.
Type a value for the field you picked in step 2 in the text box to the right. This value is the argument to the operation you picked in step 3.
Note: If you are filtering based on an international phone number field, and you want to enter the country code, the country code must be followed by a double pipe. For example, to enter the country code 55, enter "55||" in the text box
(Optional) To add a second filter, click either And or Or to indicate how you want to combine the first and second filter. Then repeat steps 2 through 4 for the second filter.
(Optional) To add a third filter, repeat step 5 for the third filter.
To remove all filtering from a view:
In the Filtering section, click Show all items.
To remove a single filter from a view:
In the Filtering section, locate the filter to remove.
Reset your dropdowns to Choose Field and Choose Operator.
Automatically totals numeric or currency fields in a view, such as Purchase Price or Quantity. Totals appear at the bottom of the column, on the last page of the view.
For example, the following view totals the Purchase Price of all software in the Graphics Department's Inventory database so members can easily see the total cost of software for the department.
If you have arranged the data in this view into groups, you can create sub-totals for each group. When you sub-total a field, the sub-total for each group appears on the last line of the grouping.
In this example, the "Donation" field is sub-totaled for each year grouping.
To create a total or subtotal:
In the Totaling section, click the checkbox next to each field you'd like to total. Note that only numeric and currency fields appear in this list.
Click the checkbox next to each field you'd like to subtotal.
The totals are computed automatically.
Now that you've defined the views for your database, go on to set permissions to specify who can view, add, and manage information in your database.
Go to Setting permissions on the database.
The simplest way to print a view is to use the Print button in the Command Bar at the top of the View page:
Select the view you wish to print using the View by list.
Click the Print button. This will open the print preview window.
Use the print preview window to review what you're going to print.
Click the Print button. This will print to your printer. Tip: In rare cases, when you are using an older version of a browser, this button may not work. If this happens, select Print from the File menu in the print preview window.
When you print a view, all the records in the view are printed, even if only the first 25 are being displayed. If the view is showing the results of a search, print will print the results of the search, only those records that match the search string you chose.
Printing a view in this manner will print the view using the default options for a report. These values are:
The title will be the name of the database and the view.
There will be no special paging.
The view will include grid lines.
The report template will be Standard.
If you wish to print the view using other options, you will need to use a database report.
You can easily create reports based on any of the views in your database. Any user with Read access or above can access and print a professionally designed report based on the views you customize.
Click here to learn more about creating reports from database views.
You modify views to change things like which fields are included in the view, column widths, the order of the columns, or even the name of the view. Anyone with Manage access to a database can modify any of its views.
To modify an existing view:
On the Manage Database page, click Views.
Click the name of the view you want to modify,
or click the Edit icon 
.
Modify the view properties:
Click Save in the Command Bar.
You can delete views at any time. Anyone with Manage access to a database can delete any of its views. When you delete a view, only the view of the data is lost, the data itself is still in the database.
To delete a view:
On the Manage Database page, click Views.
Click the Delete icon 
next to the
view you want to delete.
A database must always have a default view. You cannot delete the default view without first picking another view to be the default one. Learn more about default views.
A view's filter defines what records are displayed in the view. Because a filter is part of the view's design, the view displays only the records that match the filter every time anyone opens the view. In other words, the filter is always on. The filter can be changed only by a database manager who edits the view definition.
Any user can search in a view to retrieve a set of records that match the criteria they type into the Search box. The search is performed only on records that match the view's filter, so the search results are the records that match both the filter and the search criteria. There is no way for a user to save a search string for future use; they must type it in each time.
A compound field is a field that consists of more than one part. For example, a Name field consists of three parts: First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name. An Address field is another example of a compound field. Other types of fields, such as Text fields, have just one part, and are called simple fields.
When you include a compound field in a view, you have more options than when using a simple field. The entire compound field is available to you, as well as each of the parts of the field. In the case of a Name field, this means you could include the entire name as a column in the view, or just include the last name. By using parts of the name in the sorting definition, you could sort a view on the last name, or on the first name.
Anywhere you can use a field, you can also use a part of a compound field, including view columns, filters and sorting. The field parts will appear automatically in the field list. You can recognize them because:
The parts are named using the field name, followed by a period, followed by the built-in name of the field part. For instance, if you create a Name field with the field name of "Customer", then the three field parts will be called: "Customer.Last Name", "Customer.First Name", and "Customer.Middle Name".
The parts of a compound field will follow the entire field in the list of fields.