In this tutorial we will look at how to customise and get more from your List Tables.

Each time you look at a list of shares in ShareScope, be it in a fixed list (such as the All list, or Shares list), or in one of your Portfolios, or in the Data Mining screen, you will be looking at a particular List Table. With a list view selected on your screen you should see a menu at the top of your screen called List Tables which may look something like this:

Remember that the fourth menu will always tell you what screen you are in (‘List’ in this instance) and the sixth menu allows you to choose which table or setting you want to use.

Notice that there are 12 Tables you can choose from. The one that you are currently viewing has a tick beside it (in this instance, Table 1). Notice also that you can rename each Table Setting from this menu.

Now have a look at the top of the ShareScope screen (or the top of the list window, if you use ShareScope Plus or Pro) and notice that it also says there which List Table you are using:

In ShareScope Plus and Pro you should see the following in the title bar:

Notice also that the title bar tells you which list of instruments you are currently looking at – in both examples the current list is the ‘FTSE 100’ list of shares.

Once you have established which List Table you are currently on, take a look at the columns that are on the table. The column headings are usually in grey – in the example above you can see the first two columns; the first is called ‘No.’ and the second is called ‘Name’. What other columns do you have on your current List Table?

Go to the List Tables menu at the top of your screen and select a different Table to the one that is currently selected (the one which has the tick next to it). Now look at the columns that are on this List Table – are they the same or different to the ones on the previous List Table? Take a look at the title bar now – notice that you are still looking at the same ‘List’ of shares, however the ‘Table’ will have changed.

By using the 12 List Tables you are able to create different tables containing different columns to better lay out the information provided by ShareScope. This can then make the data more comprehensible and better suited to your trading or investment style. We'll look at this later.

The instruments in each List Table can be sorted independently. To sort a list of shares alphabetically, double click in the ‘Name’ column heading – where it says ‘Name’ at the top of the column. If your list was already sorted by Name, then a double click will reverse the sort order (so sort from Z to A). Double click again to revert back to A to Z if necessary. If you sort on a price or price change column, the highest price or change will be at the top of the list, zero in the middle and any negative values (with price change columns) will be at the bottom. Again, a further double click will reverse the sort order. In this way you can easily find shares that have risen or fallen the most over a selected period of time or compare how shares have moved against an index. You can also sort into Sector groups or compare fundamentals such as changes in earnings growth. Each List Table can only be sorted by one column at a time.

Double click in the column heading area of the column you want to sort the list by. In the example above, to sort the list by Sector you would double click anywhere within the red box. A bold column heading and arrow in the column heading area shows which column the list is currently sorted by (‘Name’).

If you look at all of the List Tables you may notice that some of them only have a ‘No.’ and ‘Name’ column. Others may have other columns already included. You can choose which columns to have on which List Tables by adding or removing columns. The maximum number of columns per List Table is 120.

To remove columns, right click in the column heading (the name of the column) and select ‘Remove column’. You can also remove a column by right clicking on the column heading and press ‘V’ on your keyboard.

To add new columns to a List Table, right click in any column heading (ideally, the column to the right of where you want to insert the new column) to display the following menu:

Note: ‘Add Intraday Column…’ and ‘Add ShareScript Column…’ are only available in ShareScope Plus and Pro.

Options with an arrow next to them will display a further sub-menu when you position your cursor over them. Options with three dots after them will display a dialog when you select them.

• Add General Column – includes items such as Sector and Index, Company specific information such as the company activities and contact details and some fundamental results such as Dividends, Yield, EPS and P/E. You can also add up to 10 Notes columns enabling you to record your own thoughts or information about a company.


• Add Intraday Column… - (Plus/Pro only) includes items such as current Mid, Bid and Offer, Trade prices, cumulative volume and micrographs.


• Add Price Column – End of Day Open, High, Low, Close and Volume for the last day as well as Closing price Highs and Lows.


• Add Result Column… - Headline and Advanced results and ratios such as Turnover, EPS Growth, Gearing, ROCE and more.


• Add Rank Column… - allows you to rank a share compared to other shares in the same Sector, Sub-sector, Industry or within the entire market based on selected Headline or Advanced results and ratios.


• Add Date Column – see when the company last paid a dividend or when the next annual report is due out.


• Add Investors Chronicle Column – see when the IC last gave a tip about a company. Double click on an entry to view a list of the latest tips for the company. To access further information you will need an on-line subscription with the Investors Chronicle.


• Add Transaction Column – see information relating to the transactions you have entered in the main list view.


• Add ShareScript Column… - add columns to display custom values created using ShareScript files. These enable you to calculate metrics not provided by ShareScope (Plus & Pro only). Visit www.sharescript.co.uk for more information.


• Add separator column – adds an empty column that you can use to separate groups of columns.

Each column that you add to a List Table can be independently coloured. Right click on a column heading and select ‘Borders & Shading…’. The following dialog is displayed:

Experiment changing the Text and/or Background colour of the column, as well as the Text Style and column Borders. The changes you make are updated in the Preview section:

To remove your changes, select Default.

You can rename a column by right clicking in the column heading and select ‘Change heading…’.

Enter a new name for the column (for example, you may want to call this column ‘Last price’) and click on OK. If you have renamed a column and you want to check what it was originally called or what it is referred to by ShareScope, then select this option and check what it says next to ‘Default name’. Press the Default button to change the column name back to the Default name.

You can use the ‘Fit width’ and ‘Set width’ options to change the width of each of the columns. ‘Fit width’ automatically adjusts the column width to best fit the content of the column. You can also achieve this by moving your cursor to the vertical line between column headings and double clicking.

Depending on the types of columns you have in your List Table there may be further column options available. These will be displayed at the bottom of the menu that appears when you right click on a column heading.

For example, columns displaying numeric data will provide options for justification, decimal places, fractions, currency units and more.

In columns which display headline results you can enable/disable the pop-up graph (see below) that appears when you hover the cursor over the cell.

On a wide range of columns, you can enable/disable the data tip that appears when you hover the cursor over a cell. Data tips expand on the information displayed in the cell. See the examples below:

If you right click in the middle of the list (not in the column heading area this time) you will see an option at the bottom called List Design. Selecting this will display the following dialog:

Note: This dialog is from Plus/Pro – Gold does not have the Micrograph tab or the Intraday data only button, and Heat maps do not have the same options in Gold.

This dialog enables you to customise all aspects of the List table. Note that the customisation options described in the previous section apply to the selected column and will override the settings made here in List design.

On the left-hand side of the dialog, the White space option enables you to increase or decrease the space between the lines of the table. The Text tab on the right-hand side enables you to change the size, colour and typeface of the text.

Note the Wrap tickbox on the left-hand side which is great for squeezing a long list of shares into a single window - although you'll have to make do with just a few columns. See the example below which shows a FTSE 100 heatmap.

Experiment with the different options available and use the Preview button to see how they affect your List Table. If you are not happy with your changes, click Cancel to return to the List Table as it was before you opened the dialog. You can also save the List Table to the Library, so if you make changes you are not happy with you can always reload the List Table from the Library.

Remember, if you have any trouble finding or using any of these features, please don’t hesitate to call our Customer Support team. They will be delighted to help.