Creative way to display tables with 35 columns

Question

I have a form where users are entering 35 different fields.

I have a Content Management System where I want to display the results of an order on the form.

I've thought about adding a horizontal scrollbar inside the table, or limiting the table to the 10 most important columns and then making it so the administrator has to click on an entry to view all of the information on its own details page.

Do you know any creative ways that I can display the 35 fields on one page?

Answer 1

A standard Master/Detail Form should work. The table/grid would have key pieces of data and below it, the detail form would have all the details in a user friendly layout. To see the detail a user simply needs to select or click a row in the table/grid and the information rendered in the detail area is updated by the On_Click/On_Hover/etc event.

Answer 2

I don't know if this will fit your needs, but the jQuery ScrollTo plugin might be an interesting alternative to just a plain horizontal scrollbar.

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Edit: There is another addon you might want to look at called columnManager.

Answer 3

I have had instances dealing with grids that are wide. In my own opinion, I think it is best to use the browser's (horizontal) scroll bar instead of having an "inner" (horizontal) scrollbar. A problem with http://demos.flesler.com/jquery/scrollTo/

Also, no clicks are involved or whatsoever. The user will be able to see everything by just scrolling. On the other hand, allowing the user to hide/show columns would also be good.