Ok, that might be a little dramatic for a title, but this DM Tips post is jam packed with helpful tricks for navigating Design Manager. I hope the following tips will save you time, save you money, or better yet maybe save you a little sanity.  Let's get right down to business...

DM Trick #1  Sorting and Searching within Columns

If you are in the Specifications window within DM or Pro Cloud, you can easily click on a column heading to sort the column. Additionally, you can search a column simply by typing a number, description, or name.  For example, I typed Ann for Annette in the Description column to pull up the Annette Armchair.

DM Trick #2  Right Click

In Pro Cloud, when you right click on a grid, like the Specifications grid, you can Add, Edit, Delete, or Export.  Export is handy as a quick way to get data over to an Excel spreadsheet if you want to manipulate the data outside of Design Manager.

In DM Cloud, when you right click on a grid, like the Specifications grid, you can pull up the same menu of Add, Edit, Delete, or Export. Additionally, if you right click on the tree view side, you can pull up navigational functions that assist you with quickly moving to another area of the software that is related to that item.  For example, go to a proposal or invoice that is associated with the item.

DM Trick #3  OK, Add Buttons

Instead of using the OK button over and over again, use the OK, Add button instead.  The OK, Add button is a quicker way to add new information because you never leave the window.  My first example is inputting multiple bills and my second example is inputting multiple time billing entries.  The OK, Add button can be found throughout the software though, not just on those two windows.

DM Trick #4  Report Favorites

Do you waste time hunting through the reports menu to find your reports?  Stop!  Simply add your favorite reports to the Favorites pane for easy access in the future.

DM Trick #5  Spec Search and Transaction Search

If you are looking for a certain item, or information about an item use the Spec Search.  It has a multi-layered search function to filter your results and you can export to excel.

If you are looking for a transaction in the accounting side of DM, use the Transaction Search. For example, if your reconciliation for the month is off by a certain dollar amount, type it into the Transaction Search to track it down fast.

These search windows are by far the biggest time savers in Design Manager.

Those are the tricks that I have highlighted for you in this blog post.  However, if you are hungry for more, please watch our Tips and Tricks Webinar from last week.  There are so many more examples in our webinar, so please take the time to watch the whole video or skip through to your favorite parts using the timestamps in the video description.

Do you consider yourself a DM expert?  Do you have some tricks to share for our users?  Please share them in our comments section below.