Activity ships with a fixed set of tabs. All routes, Planned, In progress and Completed each show a predefined set of columns, which is fine for a general overview but rarely matches how any one team actually works.
A custom view is your own version of that table. You decide which columns appear, what order they sit in, and what filters are applied. Save it once and it loads that way every time.
Custom views live under the Custom tab in Activity. A view can be kept to your own account or shared with the rest of the organisation.
What a custom view holds
A saved view stores two things:
Columns - which columns are shown, and the order they appear in
Filters - anything set in the left-hand filter panel, attached to the view when you choose to save them
The Route column is always present and can't be switched off. All other columns are optional and can be added in whatever order you'd like.
Create a custom view
Open Activity and select the Custom tab.
Select Create view in the top right. The Create custom view panel opens on the right-hand side.
Give the view a name under View name. Names that describe the job or the filtering tend to age best
Set Shared with. Only me (Personal) keeps the view on your account. Sharing it makes it available to your colleagues.
Switch on the columns you need under Columns and visibility. The table behind the panel updates immediately, so you can judge the result as you build it.
Reorder the columns by dragging them with the handle that appears to the left of each name on hover. The top of the list becomes the left-most column in the table.
Select Save.
The new view is now active and appears in the top bar next to View.
Edit a custom view
Check that the view you want to change is the one shown next to View in the top bar. Use the arrow beside it to switch to a different view.
Select the sliders icon immediately to the right of the view name. The Edit custom view panel opens with the current settings loaded.
Change whatever needs changing: rename the view, adjust who it's shared with, toggle columns on or off, or drag them into a different order. As with creating a view, the table updates live behind the panel.
Select Save changes.
To remove a view altogether, select Delete in the bottom left of the same panel.
Save filters to a view
Filtering behaves the same in the Custom tab as elsewhere in Activity. The difference is that you can attach the result to the view so it comes back every time.
Apply your filters in the left-hand panel. All filters work as usual and the table narrows down with each one.
Select Save filters to view at the bottom of the panel. The button stays inactive until at least one filter is set.
Those filters now load automatically whenever the view is opened. To update them later, change the filters and save again. To remove them, select Clear filters and then save once more.
Good to know
Views are tied to the Custom tab. The standard tabs are unaffected by anything you configure here.
A shared view is shared as one object. If a colleague edits it and saves it, everyone sees the change.
Nothing about a view changes the underlying route data. Views only control what you see and how it's arranged.