Filtering Tables in Documents
CompletedHey,
In our MD&A report we have a large table that summarizes our variances for Operating Expenses by a number of specific categories. I created a section in our spreadsheet with 20 rows for each variance category so that we had plenty of lines for potential explanations for why a category went up or down in a given month. I built in columns that rank each explanation by significance using specific formulas, so that each month all we had to do was sort by the Ranking column, and filter by the Hide/Show column, which would automatically update the whole table with all of the explanations and categories in the right order based on the overall OPEX variance, and significance of each individual explanation.
We transitioned this month, and in Next Gen Documents, we can't seem to find the filter feature for the table. The rows from the last month that were hidden by the filter are currently hidden but there's no filter in the first row like in Classic Documents. The table is over 800 rows long, so going through and unhiding and hiding each of the relevant rows would be extremely time consuming and defeat the purpose of building this table in the first place.
I found the sort feature by highlighting the table and right clicking on it, but I don't see any Filter feature...
Please let me know where the Filter button is, or if it's not currently available, please let me know the most efficient work around.
Thanks!!
Dan
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Official comment
Hi all!
Great news, a recent release to Workiva has now made filtering available in embedded tables within Documents and Spreadsheets. Thanks so much for your feedback and patience. Give us a holler if you have questions and happy Friday!Hi Dan!
Currently for tables within next gen Documents, the filter option is not yet available. This is on our Product Team's radar, however, and they are aiming to have it released this quarter so I'd definitely stay tuned to our What's New topic. I'll keep you informed here as well when I have more info but do let me know if you have any questions for me in the meantime. Thanks again and have a great day!1Hey Mike,
We've been waiting for months for this feature to be added back. The process now takes us an hour and a half instead of thirty seconds, so we're wondering if we should revert back to classic documents for this table?
If the plan is to get this feature back in the next month or so then that would be great, otherwise we'll need to find another work around.
Please let us know.
Thanks,
Dan
0Hi Dan,
Thanks for reaching out. Sorry to hear the lack of time savings in your current process. That's no bueno!
I double-check with our Product Team and due to competing priorities, this particular feature pushed moved back and is not likely be available in coming month. At this time I don't have an ETA on when it will be added back but can at least say its still planned.
Certainly this is not what you are hoping to hear, I'm sure. I'd hate to have you move back to classic after such devotion to next gen. To check, filtering the data in your Spreadsheet itself doesn't work as a workaround currently? I just wanted to confirm.
In the meantime, I've certainly passed along your feedback to the team and will keep digging to see if there's any other solutions for you. Thanks as always for your time and suggestions. Chat with you soon!0Hey Mike,
Ya, we can filter the data in the spreadsheet, but the cells are linked from the spreadsheet to the table in the document, so without the filters/sorting feature in the document table, it requires manually hiding and unhiding the rows. I also thought about copying and pasting the table from the spreadsheet to the document to replace the table each time, but due to the limit of 500 links we can create at a time, this is not possible since the table has about 4,500 cells linked.
What I was thinking of doing was not reverting to classic for the whole report, but just the section with this variance analysis table in it. Then when we prepare the final version of the report we would export to pdf and combine the two pdf documents in Adobe. This is the work around that I came up with for our executive summary section that used two column page layout in classic docs.
I'd rather not go and rebuild this section in a classic doc because then our directors and VPs would need to go into two different areas to review and it will be time consuming to setup. If the feature isn't realistically going to be added to next gen docs in the next month or two, then I'll probably have to do this.
Thanks for getting back to me, and yes if there's any other work around that I haven't thought about please let me know :)
0Gotcha, Dan. Thanks for the additional info. Much appreciated for sure. I've definitely passed this along and will keep you posted with any new developments. Chat soon, hopefully!
0Hey Mike, is there any update on this feature? We're still holding off transitioning to NextGen because of features like this not being available yet. Seven months later, any progress bringing table filtering back into play?
1Hi Sarah Gorman!
Yes, I can provide a little update here. Our Product Team is in flight on this feature and we plan to have this available for use this quarter, likely in August. I've got your request connected to our ongoing work so you can stay apprised, but I'll also update this post going forward with new developments there. Thank you for your feedback and your continued patience. We certainly want to make sure you can get transitioned to next gen sooner than later, so we appreciate the input.
Give me a holler if there are any questions or you need anything else. Thanks again and have a super day!
0Hi Mike,
Has this feature been added? We are trying to find it as well.
Thanks,
Kathleen
0Hi Kathleen!
August has indeed come and come, and sadly this feature has not yet been released. However, in checking back with our Product Team, they anticipate having this released very soon, still within Q3. I'll keep this post updated for sure, but we'll also publish this to What's New as well. Thanks for the note, and for keeping me honest.
Let me know if you have any follow-ups for me, or need anything else. Stay awesome!
0It's finally here!!!!! Filtering tables in NextGen documents is a thing again!
Thanks to everyone involved in getting this feature in NextGen docs - it's going to save our team so many hours each month when preparing the FS and MD&A!!!
Dan
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