Did You Know? Model building hacks

KirillKuznetsov
KirillKuznetsov
in Blog
Model Building Hacks.png

Author: Kirill Kuznetsov is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Solution Architect at Planingo.

Hi fellow Anaplanners,

Today I would like to share six model building hacks I use on a daily basis. This is not what can be found in Anaplan learning course — some of them I figured out myself, some are hidden in Anapedia, and some my colleagues and friends shared with me.

  1. Format change in two clicks.
    Credits to @Hayk for sharing this one!
    To change line items format you can type first letter of a format name in blueprint view. The format selection window will open automatically so you can correct your choice anytime. This also applicable to Summary method as you can see in the video.
    https://play.vidyard.com/CgXmjJMm5iXbVVEF1DySUT?
  2. (Not) delete to copy.
    Sometimes you have to copy existing names of your line items in bulk to make alternative with slightly different naming. You could use Excel and copy and paste needed line items to extract name from the full blueprint. But for me it is overcomplicated process if it is not too many of them.
    Push delete button in blueprint view and select line item names you want to copy from Delete pop-up window. (Just make sure you click “cancel” and not “delete” after you copy.)
    https://play.vidyard.com/RAvsPYRc45WjzqHzJcewKD?
  3. One of the advantages of new modeling experience has over the classic is that Anaplan tabs are links. The links now have object IDs for anything what can be opened in a tab: Lists and Modules. There is the example of an opened module link. The last section is the module’s ID.
    ModelIDimage.png
    Using this feature you can restore tabs by “going back to the previous page. In a short video I’ve shown you how I was able to restore all my recent tabs by pushing "Back" after I closed them.
    https://play.vidyard.com/iTefwMxntsn9jJ4RBMWogb?
  4. “Items to show” to the right order.
    By default “select items to show” adds items under the very last selected. Below is the approach we all usually use:
    https://play.vidyard.com/s46fZEuza8fudu6oCCmtfp?
    Did you know that you can select an item in Items to Show (right) container to add another item right below it and not in the end of the whole list of added items? Look how much easier it is:
    https://play.vidyard.com/GaLAJnWcJXQxdZq9htC9TY?
    In short, to be able to add Channel line item below Name copy you have to: 1) select Channel, 2) select Name copy, 3) click >
    ReselectItems.png
  5. ITEM instead of FINDITEM.
    This one is given here in Anapedia but I never saw anyone talking about it.
    Instead of FINDITEM(x,y) you can also use ITEM(x,y). Two arguments in ITEM() function automatically will be recognized as FINDITEM() by Anaplan.
    https://play.vidyard.com/v1qbPeDW3ooFyeL8to1Wz6?
  6. Hotkeys.
    There are two underestimated hotkeys which are pretty useful in model building and analysis in my opinion.
    End: will bring you to the last cell within the same row in a table.
    Ctrl + End: will bring you to the last cell of the whole table
    Home: will bring you to the first cell within the same row in a table.
    Ctrl + Home: will bring you to the first cell of the whole table.
    These hotkeys are not something unique to Anaplan and they work in Excel or any other documents too. But in Anaplan it gets very useful when you need to see values in the end of time scale or quickly check Referenced by in blueprint view.

Did you know about all of these hacks? I would also love to hear what are your favorite model building hacks you have found — leave a comment!

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