About Tables

Much of the information you can access and manage in SmartAdvocate is presented as a table. There are slight differences among the various tables in SmartAdvocate, but most share the same fundamental interface. This section describes the general structure of SmartAdvocate tables and lists the most common features.

About the General Structure

SmartAdvocate uses rows to represent the individual objects whose information is being stored. For example, plaintiffs.

And columns to represent the various pieces of information about those objects. For example, the name of the plaintiff.

Tables are divided into pages, each of which includes up to a certain number of rows. The number varies depending on the table. Only one page of a table is visible at a time. See the pagination tool below for navigating between pages of a table.

A single page of a table may be larger than what can fit on a screen. If so, the vertical scroll bar at the right side of the table will be active, for use in scrolling through the results on a given page. This scroll bar only affects the table, not the entire screen or panel. Some screens and panels have both a scroll bar and a table with its own scroll bar. A few tables also have horizontal scroll bars because they have too many columns to appear on the screen simultaneously.

Many tables have one or more non-data columns. There are two main types of non-data columns: actions and checkboxes. Action columns consist of an icon or set of icons, usually the same in every row, that can be clicked to perform some action on that row. The name of an action column is usually Action or Actions but it can vary. Common icons in action columns include the Edit icon, which brings up the edit panel; the Right-click icon, which brings up a menu of options that can also be accessed by right-clicking anywhere on the row; and the Delete icon, which deletes the row. There is a confirmation message to avoid accidental deletion.

Many of the other icons that may appear in certain tables in SmartAdvocate are described in the Icons chapter of this manual.

Checkbox columns consist of a checkbox in every row, and the column heading may also be a checkbox. These columns select multiple rows in tables that allow various types of mass actions.

About Adding Rows

Some tables have a button for new record creation. This button will be to the upper left of the table and is labeled Add [the type of item in the table] or New [the type of item in the table]. On most screens, clicking this button will bring up the same panel as the pencil icon, but with all fields blank or set to their defaults. Saving changes made in this panel will create a new row in the table. Saving changes made in the panel brought up by the pencil icon will only change an existing row of the table.

About Exporting

Some tables have icons at the upper right of the table, next to the word Export. These icons allow you to export the table to various file formats. The Adobe icon exports to a PDF file, the Excel icon exports to an XLS file, and the Word icon exports to an RTF file.

Since it is not possible to change the page layout in the PDF once it has been created, and the standard page layout is not well suited to displaying large data tables, it is not recommended to export to that format unless you are only displaying relatively few results and relatively few columns.

About Sub-Tables

A sub-table is a table that is specifically related to the row containing it. For instance, each row in a table of medical providers will have sub-tables listing Add Visit, Add New Bill, and Add Payment/Adjustment for that particular medical provider.

The sub-tables appear immediately below the row containing them between the row containing it and the next row of that table indented slightly to the right. To view the sub-tables belonging to a particular row in the table that contains them, click the arrow in that row.

About Pagination

Some tables, if there are sufficient rows, divide the results into pages. These tables will have a pagination tool to the lower left of the table. It will tell you what page of the results you are on, how many pages of results there are in total, and how many individual results there are in total. It also allows navigation between pages. You can either click the Page Left (<) or Page Right (>) buttons, which will respectively move back or forward one page of results. Click one of the numbers between those two buttons to move directly to that page. If there are many pages of results, only a few page numbers will be visible to click on, so this shortcut will only be useful for skipping to the end or beginning of the results.

About the Filtering Tools

Some tables have the Create Filter link, which is at the very bottom of the screen, below the pagination tool, if the pagination tool is present. Clicking either the Create Filter text or the funnel icon immediately to its left will bring up the Filter Builder panel.

If there is already an active filter, the Create Filter text will be replaced by the text of the filtering condition. Click to edit that condition in the Filter Builder panel.

Immediately below the column headings in the table is a row of empty input fields (except in non-data columns), into which you can enter text to filter the table on that column.

Additionally, there will be a checkbox to the left of that text that can be used to temporarily deactivate the filter, and on the right will be the Clear button which will eliminate the filter.

In some cases, if there is no active filter, the Create Filter tool will not appear in the table, but if there is an active filter, the text of the filtering condition will appear.

About the Funnel Icon

Each empty input field also has a funnel icon next to it. Clicking this funnel icon after you have entered text into the associated field allows you to change the way that text is used to match the data in the table.

Textual Columns

For textual columns, you can choose to find data that:

Begins with
Contains (which is the default)
Doesn't contain
Ends with
Equals
Doesn't equal

Numeric Columns

For numeric columns, you can choose to find data that:

Equals
Doesn't equal
Is less than
Is less than or equal to
Is greater than
Is greater than or equal to

Date Columns

For date columns, you must enter a date using a Date-widget dropdown, and its funnel icon presents the same options as numeric columns, except that "less than" and "greater than" mean "before" and "after," respectively.

Multiple Columns

You may enter text into multiple columns, which will only retrieve data that matches every column with text in it. It will create an AND filter. Filtering the table using the input fields may automatically create a filter in the Filter Builder and apply it to the table.

The created filter will replace the Create Filter tool (just as a filter created in the Filter Builder does) and will be accessible and editable in the Filter Builder panel by clicking it.

Column Heading Funnel

Some column headings themselves have funnel icons next to the name of the column. Clicking the funnel icon in a column heading will bring up a list of all the distinct contents of the cells in that column.

Checkboxes

In some cases, there will be a checkbox next to each item in the list. If there is no checkbox, you may simply select one of the options in the list, and the table will only show results matching the option you selected.

If there are checkboxes, you may select any number of the checkboxes to only show results matching one of the items you selected.

If none of the checkboxes are selected (the default), or if the Select All box is selected, none of the results will be excluded based on that column.

If the Select All box is selected, it will create a filter, but that filter will have no effect on which results appear. Selecting every box except the Select All box will automatically also select the Select All box.

You may use this list filter on multiple columns, much like using the text-entry filter on multiple columns. You may also use the list filter on some columns and the text-entry filter on others.

You may not, however, use the list filter and the text-entry filter on the same column. Using either will override the other.

About the Column Display Configuration

Some tables have a Show/Hide Columns button to the lower right of the table. Clicking this button brings up the Column Chooser panel, which in many, but not all, tables is empty by default, meaning that all columns are currently visible.

You can drag any of the column headings into the Column Chooser panel, which will hide that column from appearing in the table of results. You can also drag any column heading out of the Column Chooser panel to a spot among the headings in the table of results, which will make that column visible again in the spot to which you dragged it.

Even if a column is hidden, you can still sort the table based on that column by clicking its heading in the Column Chooser panel. You can also move the Column Chooser panel by dragging its top bar (containing the text "Column Chooser") wherever you choose. This can be particularly helpful if the Column Chooser panel is hiding a portion of the table you want to view.

In many tables, you may rearrange the columns in any order you choose by dragging their headings to the positions you prefer. You can only drag the headings to other parts of the heading area; if a heading is dragged anywhere else, it will have no effect. (The exception is if a heading is dragged into the Column Chooser panel; see above.) In some tables, you may also change the width of columns by clicking the line separating the column whose width you want to change from the column to its right, then dragging it as desired.

About Sorting

You can sort most tables based on any data column by clicking the heading of that column. A small arrow icon will appear on the right side of the column heading. Clicking the same heading again will reverse the order of the sort. You can only sort by one column at a time.

Columns that appear to be numeric may be considered generic text by the SmartAdvocate system, in which case it will be sorted alphabetically. This would mean, for example, that "7" would be treated as later than "605."

About Select All

Many tables have a checkbox column. Selecting the top checkbox will select all checkboxes below it. To deselect all of the checkboxes, select the same checkbox as above. To manually deselect a row, select the row individually.

About Pinning

In the Case Browse Results screen only, if you wish to keep some columns on the screen as you scroll to the right, you may click the pin icon to the left of the column name you wish to keep on the screen.

Columns that are not pinned in this way will have pin icons that point to the left, and the data in the columns will have no background.

Columns that are pinned will have pin icons that point down, and the data in the columns will have a light blue background.

Pinned columns will always be the left-most visible columns (except for the selector column). By default, Case No. and Case Name are initially pinned.

Pinned columns cannot be placed to the right of unpinned columns; however, you can change the order of the pinned columns the same way as you change the order of unpinned columns.