Tailwind is full of personnel lists, Equipment Lists, Invoice Lists, lists of Orders and Quotes and Dispatches. Sometimes these lists show you exactly the information you are looking for, right up front — the Quote you have just created is right there at the top of the list, easy as pie — but sometimes that's not the case.

Tailwind provides some tools to help you search, filter, and adjust these list views to find the information you're looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The first and most accessible tool is the Search bar that appears at the top of every list. A search using this tool will search all the different fields of all the items on the list at once — whether it's the Customer field on an Order, a Vendor address, or the Insurance expiry date on a piece of Equipment if it matches what you typed it will appear in the filtered list.

Because this search looks at all fields, it will sometimes return 'extra' results, particularly if you are searching on a common string or word that appears in multiple fields - if this is creating problems, make sure to search on the most detailed version of the term you can.

There are also several ways for you to customize the various lists, to ensure that they are showing you the information you find most useful. These controls appear at the bottom right of every list.

Every list view displays a particular set of data columns by default -- but every business is different, and even within a business, different roles may want to see different information.

Click on the 'Active Columns' button to adjust which columns are displayed. This will include a list of all available columns, allowing you to toggle each on and off in the display. Once you have selected the columns you want to see, click the 'Save' button to return to the list. It should now be displaying only the columns you selected.

The order and size of the columns can also be adjusted by dropping and dragging, as in a typical spreadsheet program. Note that if you have added a lot of columns, some of them may appear offscreen, requiring you to scroll to the right to see them.

You can also adjust the number of records on each page of the list view. Clicking on the 'List Size' button will bring up a list of options; remember that choosing larger numbers may cause the lists to load more slowly.

Some lists — such as the Orders and Dispatches views — also include a set of Status Filters along the very top of the list. These allow you to quickly adjust which records are displayed based on their internal status; you can also use them to set up a default view that is more appropriate for your particular role at the company.

For example, a Dispatcher might want to hide any Orders that have already been sent to Invoicing or Invoicing, while someone working primarily on the Administration side might want only to see those Orders.

Clicking on a particular Status Filter will toggle those records on or off. If you want to save a specific set of filters as your default view, click on the 'Save' button to the right of the filters. This will only save this view for your particular user account, so don't worry about messing up anyone else's lists — get it set up how you want it going forward.

Once you have set up your desired list preferences, it is important to note that these preferences are saved in your browser's cache - a temporary storage location that stores downloaded items (such as images) that allows a web page to load faster when you revisit it. This means that these preferences are specific to that one browser that you are currently using.

If you switch between browsers or computers or decide to clear the cache, you will need to set these up again. This will also be the case if you use Google Chrome in incognito mode.

You may also want to read our more general guide to navigating Tailwind.

Once you have customized your list views, you may also want to look at the Configuration & Settings basics to help fit Tailwind to your specific business needs.