Grids: interact and configure

This guide covers the grids you work in every day: how to resize and fill columns, set row height and how many records fit in the pane, sort, and reorder rows or columns. Settings live with the active grid and are stored in that view’s layout.

Open Grid configuration

1. Click the grid you want to change (make it the active view).
2. Choose Settings → Grid configuration…
3. Or click the gear on a window caption (non-main windows).

The dialog follows the grid you last clicked. Changes apply immediately and stay with that view.

The Field tab is for chart cells (appearance, title, labels). Window → Reset layout only resets this dialog’s panes, not the grid.

Which rows you see is also controlled by the left navigator explorer bar (AcqKey, Sample groups, Analyte groups). Those checkboxes apply to every grid and chart, not only the active view. See Navigator explorer bar.

Anatomy of a grid

Column width

Set a width. Hover the vertical line between columns until the resize cursor appears, then drag. A live tip shows Width: n. You can drag in the header or in the body.

Auto-fit one column. Double-click that column’s divider. The column becomes as wide as its header or widest cell.

Auto-fit every column. Ctrl+double-click any column divider.

Same width on several columns. Select those columns first (click their headers; Ctrl or Shift to add more), then drag one of their dividers. All selected columns get the same pixel width.

Equalize without Fill. There is no separate “equalize” command. Multi-select + drag one divider is the way to make columns the same width.

Dragging a column that was using Fill turns it into a fixed-width column.

Column Fill

Fill is a relative width weight on Selected fields. It is the way to make columns use the leftover pane width.

Example: Sample Fill 0, Concentration Fill 2, Status Fill 1, Type Fill 0. When you widen the pane, Sample and Type stay put. Concentration gets two thirds of the extra space, Status one third.

How to set it

1. Open Grid configuration.
2. In Selected fields, find the column.
3. Set Fill. 0 = fixed; any positive integer = weight.

Leave at least one column on Fill if you want the grid to use the full pane width without a large empty strip on the right.

Row heights and records per viewport

In Appearance → Row height, pick one mode:

Identical row height

Every row is the same height. Drag any row divider to change them all. Double-click a divider to auto-fit to the tallest content, then apply that height to every row.

Use this for dense result lists.

Variable row height

Each row keeps its own height. Drag one divider to change only that row (or all selected rows). Double-click a divider to auto-fit that row; Ctrl+double-click auto-fits all rows.

Use this when comments or wrapped text should make some rows taller.

Fit max visible rows (records per viewport)

Rows share the pane height so a chosen count is visible.

1. Select Fit max visible rows.
2. Set Max visible rows (1–500). That is how many records share the viewport.

If the grid has more rows than that number, you scroll. If it has fewer, those rows still fill the pane (no empty band under the last record).

You can also drag a row divider: the count updates from the new row height (pane height ÷ row height). A small drag does not collapse the grid to a single oversized row.

Typical use: details or chromatogram-in-cell views where you always want, for example, six records on screen.

Column sort

Sort one column. Double-click the header text (not the divider).

Cycle: unsorted → ascending (▲) → descending (▼) → unsorted.

Sort several columns. Hold Shift and double-click another header. A small number is the sort priority (1 then 2). Shift+double-click a descending column to drop it from the sort.

Natural order. Text sorts in natural order (Q2 before Q10).

Sort blocks move. Clear the sort (cycle until the triangle is gone) before Move rows or Move columns will work.

Layouts remember the sort.

Manual order: rows and columns

Move rows

1. Appearance → Interaction — turn on Move rows.
2. Click row headers so the whole rows are selected (Shift / Ctrl for more).
3. Drag the selected headers. Drop on the horizontal insert line.

Move columns

1. Turn on Move columns.
2. Click column headers so the whole columns are selected.
3. Drag the selected headers. Drop on the vertical insert line.

Another way to order columns: in Selected fields, the row order is the column order. Drag those rows (when move-rows is available on that grid) or add/remove fields to reshape the layout.

Blocked while sorted. If a triangle is showing on a header, clear the sort first.

Freeze panes

Appearance → Freeze panes

There is no “pin this column” on the header menu. Change the counts here.

Navigator explorer bar (AcqKey and groups)

The left navigator is the explorer bar. Three panes of checkboxes filter which records grids and charts show:

These are global. Unchecking AcqKey 2 hides that set in the Samples grid, Results, details, Key Review, and charts at once. They stack with Grid configuration → Records (include current sample, curve points, and so on).

Click a box to include or exclude that set or group.

Double-click a box to solo it: only that item stays on. Use this when you want one AcqKey or one group on screen.

All (italic, first in the list) checks or unchecks every item. The glyph is mixed when only some items are on.

Double-click empty space in the pane (not on a box) toggles all on or all off — same as All, without aiming at it.

Colors and labels

• A color halo around the checkbox matches the method color for that AcqKey or group.
• Type categories ((default), Sample, Target, …) are bold.
• An empty acquisition set is listed as (default).

Remembered

• AcqKey and Analyte groups are stored per method.
• Sample groups are stored per batch.
• New items default to on. If a stored layout would leave every item off, Quanto turns them all back on so the grid is not emptied by accident.

View → Reset navigator restores the navigator pane layout (Windows, Layouts, these filter panes). It does not reset which boxes are checked.

Fields: show, hide, title, format

Selected fields is the layout of the active grid.

Add a field: in Available fields, tick Sel (add) or Use (add and show). Use the Sources filter if the catalog is long.

Headers on the grid itself: Appearance → Headers — row headers, column headers, row numbers, toolbar.

Select, copy, edit

Right-click for Cut, Copy, Copy with headers, Copy as image, Paste, Select all, Fill down (Ctrl+D), Increment down (Ctrl+I). Some views add extra items (for example Accept / Reject).

Appearance → Interaction → Read only blocks edits; selection and copy still work.

Appearance → Selection & colors turns selection fill, current-cell rectangle, edit rectangle, inactive-pane hiding, header tints, and alternate row colors on or off.

Keyboard

While editing: Enter commits and moves down; Ctrl+Enter commits and moves up; Tab commits and moves across.

Navigation between views

Navigation → Record navigation

Turn Follow on for a details pane that should track the sample list. Turn Update on for the list that should drive other views.

Other appearance options

Replicated columns (qualifier slots, dose bands, and similar):

• Group by Source — all fields of Q1, then all fields of Q2…
• Group by Property — the same property across instances, then the next property
• Maximum count — how many instances to expand

Settings → Appearance… (theme, Compact / Standard / Spacious density, zoom, language) sets default sizes for new layouts. It does not replace per-grid column widths you already dragged.

Cheatsheet

Analysis setup (bottles, ESTD / ISTD, bracketing, Key Review, reports) is in the user guide index.