Once you've built a filter you'll want again,, -"monthly donors," "clients due for follow-up,," -save it as a segment. A segment is just a filter with a name, so you (and your team) can reuse it in one click instead of rebuilding it every time. Start with Finding Records with Filters if you haven't built a filter yet.
Build your filter on any list.
Choose Save as segment.
Give it a clear name that says what it contains (for example "Monthly Donors" or "Clients,, -Needs Follow-up").
Choose whether it's private or shared (below), then save.
Every list also comes with a built-in "All ..." segment (like "All Donors") that shows everything,, -you can't delete that one.
Segments also support filtering by chart, client form, and assessment templates on Clients, Visits, and Cases, including counting entries or totaling a numeric field across them. See Filtering by Related Records for details. The count shown for a segment and the rows you see when you open it always match, including for these template-based conditions.
A segment is saved against the specific list it was built on, not shared across similar lists. For example, Serve's Staff and Volunteers pages are separate lists: a segment saved while viewing Staff only shows up under Staff, and a segment saved while viewing Volunteers only shows up under Volunteers, even though both track people who serve your organization.
Private,, -only you can see it. Good for personal work-in-progress views.
Shared,, -everyone in your organization can use it. Good for team views that should stay consistent. Only the person who created a shared segment can rename or delete it; others can use it but not change it.
You can also set a segment as your default view for a list, so it's what you see when you open that list.
Your team may build up many segments over time. You can show or hide segments in your own sidebar to keep it tidy,, -hiding a segment only affects your view, it doesn't delete it for anyone else.
While you're viewing a named segment you created (not the built-in "All ..." view), any changes you make to the grid are saved to that segment automatically as you work:
Showing, hiding, or reordering columns
Sorting
Column-level filters
These changes save a couple of seconds after you stop making them, so there's no separate "save layout" step, and the layout is still there the next time you or a teammate opens that segment. If a save can't reach the server (for example, you lose your connection), CoolFocus retries automatically and also tries again if you navigate away before it succeeds.
This auto-save only applies to segments you've saved with a name. The built-in "All ..." segment and other system-provided views always show CoolFocus's default columns and don't remember per-user changes.
To change which columns show, for example adding Primary Email when it isn't in the list yet, see Adding and Customizing Columns in a List.
To change which columns show, for example adding Primary Email when it isn't in the list yet, see Adding and Customizing Columns in a List.
A segment's filter can include a condition on a chart, client form, or assessment template. If that template is later deleted, or a field it relied on is removed, CoolFocus skips just that condition instead of failing to load the list. A banner above the grid lists which conditions were skipped and why (for example, the template no longer exists, or a field on it no longer exists), and the rest of the segment's filter still applies normally. Edit the segment to remove or replace the skipped condition once you've reviewed the banner.
Reusing a view,, -one click to see the same group again.
Bulk communication,, -send an email or text to everyone in a segment. See the Marketing / campaign articles.
Reports,, -many reports let you point at a segment to control which records they include.
The Inbox has its own simple filters (open/closed, sort, assignment) and does not use these saved data segments. Segments apply to record lists like Donors, Clients, and Contributions,, -not to conversations. If you're looking to organize the Inbox, see Managing Conversations instead.
When you save a segment, CoolFocus now checks that its underlying entity type (the record type the segment filters, such as Donors or Clients) is a valid, currently registered type before saving. If it isn't, you'll see a clear error message naming the entity type instead of a generic save failure.
This can happen if:
You have an old browser tab open from before a custom form or module was removed or renamed.
A segment was created against a module your organization no longer has enabled.
To fix it, refresh the page and rebuild or re-save the segment against a currently available list. If the error persists, contact support with the entity type name shown in the message.
