What are ways to reduce the number of columns in a table/grid?

Question

I have a datagrid with many columns. This makes it pretty wide. Now we want to add more information to the table. Aside from removing or shortening existing columns what are some ways we might be able to add additional information without adding new columnes.

The data we want to add would be one of several values. For example:
Projected
Actual
Other

For other cases when the value was an off/on or true/false we would change the color of the row. In this case that doesn't seem to be a good option.

Another thing we considered is using an icon to indicate the information.

Any other ways this could be done?

Answer 1

Can you group related information into tabs?

Answer 2

an overflow area? ie a number of fields underneath the table that populate based on the selected row.

or just only show the minimum needed info and the have full details in a popup when doble clicked or something..

Answer 3

1) Popup on row hover 2) Drop open inline in the grid with extra info on row click

Answer 4

You can't add completely new data to a grid without reserving a column to display it. The best solution I've seen is to provide only the essential information in the grid displaying all records, and then create a drilldown view that shows all of the data for one row. The drilldown can either be a new view in the same form, a popup for an additional window, or perhaps a mouseover popup.

I've worked on systems that use all sorts of shortcuts to display every last bit of information on a single page, and I found that it just made everything more confusing and harder to use. "Oh, that little icon there means that <insert something totally unrelated to the icon picture>."

Answer 5

One technique I've used in the past was to create a "container" type of class that has its own labels and textboxes, and you can arrange them however you want, then insert this class into a single grid column. You still have to do some tricks on binding multiple controls that are not native "grid column" controls, but should help you along. Then, you can actually have each row a single container control in a single grid column...

Answer 6

A solution i've seen implemented with grid components is to have a column chooser - some sort of popup dialog that lists the columns and you can select which ones you would like to see in the grid. You should be able to invoke this popup by triggering it from the grid, e.g. it might appear as an option when the user right clicks and causes the context menu to appear.