Adding columns to the spreadsheet

To add a column to the spreadsheet, do any of the following:

Right-click a column heading, select Add Column, then select the field that you want to display in the column from the submenus that appear. A column displaying the selected field is inserted to the left of the column that you right-clicked.
Select a column, then on the View tab, in the View Data group, click the Add Column dropdown and select the field that you want to display in the column from the submenus that appear. A column displaying the selected field is inserted to the left of the selected column.
With no column selected in the spreadsheet, on the View tab, in the View Data group, click the Add Column dropdown and select the field that you want to display in the column from the submenus that appear. A column displaying the selected field is inserted at the end of the spreadsheet.

You can replace an existing column with a different column, by right-clicking the heading of the column you want to replace, selecting Field, then selecting the field that you want to display in the column from the submenus that appear. A column displaying the selected field is inserted in place of the original column.

Depending on the way Asta Powerproject is configured, the Table Definition Properties dialog may appear automatically once you have selected the field that you want to display in a column. You can use this dialog to configure the new column.

To specify that the Table Definition Properties dialog should appear automatically when you insert a column into the spreadsheet, select the Display table definition dialog when adding new columns check box on the Spreadsheet tab of the Options dialog; clear the check box if you do not want the dialog to appear.

You may want to use a column for the entry of plain text. If you want to set up a column in this way, you must set up the column to display a user-defined field for text entry.

Adding a column to the spreadsheet when you are unsure of the field's category

If you know the name of a field but are not sure of the category to which it belongs, you can find the field using the Add Spreadsheet Column dialog rather than selecting it from the field category submenus when adding a column to the spreadsheet. Using this dialog, you can find fields by typing a few characters of their name. For example, if you type 'per', Asta Powerproject will suggest all fields that start with the characters 'per' - or, if you prefer, all fields that contain the string 'per' somewhere in their name.

To add a column to the spreadsheet using the Add Spreadsheet Column dialog:

Access the Add Spreadsheet Column dialog by doing any of the following:
- Right-click the heading of a spreadsheet column and select Add Column - Search for Column (to add a new column to the left of an existing column).
- Right-click the heading of a spreadsheet column and select Field - Search for Column (to replace an existing column with a different column).
- Click the heading of a spreadsheet column (this is an optional step) then, on the View tab, in the View Data group, click the Add Column dropdown and select Search for Column. This will add a new column to the far-right of the spreadsheet unless you first clicked the heading of an existing column, in which case the existing column will be replaced with the new column.
Click the Starts with radio button to find fields that start with the characters you type in the Field name field, or click the Contains radio button to find fields that contain the characters you type.
In the Field name field, type a few characters of the name of the field that you want to add to the spreadsheet. For example, if you type 'per', Asta Powerproject will suggest all fields that start with the characters 'per' - or all fields that contain the string 'per' somewhere in their name, depending on whether you have clicked Starts with or Contains.

As you type, the fields that match the characters you are typing appear in the field list.
When the field you are looking for appears in the field list, click it to select it.
Click Add to add a column to the spreadsheet that displays the field you have selected, or click Close to close the dialog without adding a column to the spreadsheet.

Depending on the way in which Asta Powerproject is configured, the Table Definition Properties dialog may appear when you add a column so that you can configure it.