QlikTip #34: Some hints on working with the QlikView Designer (Part 1 – QlikView Designer)

A colleague asked me today to promote the two blog-posts where the QV10 feature of moving objects while pressing the ALT-key is explained (see qlikboard.com and guerillabi.com).

I thought instead of just posting these two links I could deliver more value by starting a series of articles which cover most of the tipps & hints when working with the QlikView Designer. (Sure, if you are a QlikView addict this will not really tell you something new, but maybe this series of articles is a good starting point for QlikView Beginners …)

So this series of articles cover the following topics:

• Part 1: Using the design mode of QlikView (this article)
• Part 2: Moving/Copying objects
• Part 3: Linking objects
• Part 4: Aligning objects
• Part 5: Sizing objects

Using the design mode of QlikView

First of all it is important to mention that there is a special design mode in QlikView!

You can activate this by activating the “Design Grid” (Menu “View” => “Design Grid” or by using the shortcut Ctrl + G or using the icon for changing to the design grid: ).

Doing so, you will then see the design grid (layout raster), which may help you to align objects:

The Design Grid in QlikView

For further information how to change the layout raster, please have a look at the following article: QlikTip #14: Changing the Layout Raster.
Having the Design Grid enabled now, you do not just have a layout raster available to align your objects, furthermore you’ll also see which objects are selected, which is really usefull when you are resizing, moving your objects:

Selected Objects in Design Grid Mode

You can select one or more objects by

• Clicking on the object or better clicking on the title bar …
• Holding Shift + Clicking on the desired objects to select multiple objects
• Pressing the left mouse-button and create a selection square form bottom-right to top-left (only those objects which are per 100% within the selection will be selected):

Selecting objects by creating a selection area

Last but not least it has to be mentioned that there is a very nice functionality of QlikView only available if your are in the “Design Grid” mode:

Custom Cell Formatting

As you know there are several possiblities to design rows, columns & cells in the QlikView designer, but the “Custom Formatting” functionality is probably the most convenient one:

If your are in the “Design Grid” mode and activate the context menu of a TableBox or Chart (Pivot Table or Straight Table) you’ll see an additional menu entry called ‘”Custom Format Cell”:

Calling this you’ll see a dialogue with a lot of nice and easy-to-use functionalities to format the underlaying table:

OK, that’s the first part of this series of articles, stay tuned and do not miss the other parts …