6.1 Shortcuts Portlet versus the Shortcuts Menu

NetSuite uses two controls for one shortcut list. The Shortcuts menu is the star icon on the navigation menu, the header list of links you add. The Shortcuts portlet is a dashboard portlet that displays those same links. Help's Shortcuts Portlet topic says the portlet opens your most-used records, transactions, lists, and reports, and that the same links appear on the star menu. A shortcut stores a page. Add the page you are viewing, or paste a URL with New Shortcut, and the list can open a record, a transaction, a list, a report, a saved search, or a web address. It does not run a search or draw a chart.

You can keep shortcuts in the star menu without placing the portlet on a dashboard. On the page you want, click the star icon and choose Add to Shortcuts. Help also describes that add action on the More list. Edit the label, check Open in New Window if the page should open separately, and save. The header link exists even when the portlet is absent. Add the portlet later and it shows the links you already saved. Personalize decides which portlets sit on the page. The star menu is not one of those portlets.

If the portlet is already on the dashboard, New Shortcut on the portlet menu asks for a label and a URL. Use it when you know the address, including a saved-search URL or an external page. If you do not know the URL, Help says to open the page and use Add to Shortcuts.

One list, edited from either place

Set Up on the portlet and Set Up Shortcuts on the star menu open the same window. Clear Enable to remove a link. Drag a row by its gripper to reorder. Rename a link or change the new-window box, then save. Help says the change shows up in the portlet and the menu.

If the Shortcuts portlet sits on more than one tabbed page, it keeps the same links on every page. A reorder on Home updates the other tabs and the star menu together. You cannot keep a purchasing list on one tab and a support list on another with this portlet. Page-specific rows belong in other portlets.

Your layout, until someone publishes it

Personalize, at the upper right or in the Settings portlet, arranges portlets for you. That layout is personal until an administrator uses Publish Dashboard in the Settings portlet. The publish name and notes stay with the publisher.

Published shortcut links show an asterisk in Set Up Shortcuts. The publisher may block clearing Enable on those rows. Lock Shortcuts stops users from removing published Shortcuts portlet links. Help says they can still add and reorder links. Lock New Bar protects Create New links, not shortcuts. A duplicate usually means the published dashboard included a link you also added. Remove your extra copy.

Published pages use Locked, Add/Move Content, or Unlocked. Locked blocks layout changes. Add/Move Content lets users add and rearrange portlets but not remove published ones. A published My Calendar portlet still shows each user's own calendar.

Portlets this section has to separate

A later chapter covers the full portlet types table, including KPI portlets. Here, separate the tools people confuse with shortcuts. Add them from Personalize on the Standard Content tab.

• Shortcuts is the shared link list, not a result grid.
• Custom Search shows one saved search. Set Up picks the search, a title, the row count, and whether drill-down stays in the portlet or opens a new page. Inline editing is available when that feature is on. Rows refresh when the page loads, and Refresh updates them again. Home allows up to six. A side column shows the first four result columns. The center column shows the first nine, plus New, Edit, and View.
• List shows one record type, standard or custom. Set Up picks the type. View can show a saved search for that type, and the menu can create a record. Samples may say Custom List. Help says List. Setup starts from a record type, not from placing one named saved search on Home.
• Report Snapshots chart or list one standard or custom report, with a link to the full report. You can place up to ten. Pick the snapshot in Set Up and a date range in the portlet. Side-column list text stops at 25 characters. List amounts round to whole numbers.
• Quick Search is a form. Set Up picks the record type. You type keywords and choose one Search For field. It does not display a saved result set.

Four tools, four jobs

Items sold today

An October 2024 sample asks where a saved search of items sold today goes on the home dashboard. The correct portlet is Custom Search. Report Snapshots, Quick Search, and a Custom List portlet are the wrong homes.

The object in that question is a saved search. Custom Search is the portlet whose Set Up list is a saved search. Add it from Standard Content, select the search, and save. Report Snapshots start from a report and summarize it as a chart or a rounded list. Quick Search waits for keywords and a Search For field. It will not already list today's item sales. A List portlet, which samples may call a Custom List, starts from a record type. Its View menu can show a saved search for that type, which is why the two portlets feel alike. The sample still keys Custom Search for this placement. A shortcut to the search URL only bookmarks the page. The rows do not refresh on the dashboard.

Home allows six Custom Search portlets. A side column shows the first four result columns. The center column shows the first nine, plus New, Edit, and View. Use the center column when those extra columns matter.

A buyer who needs a header link and a live list

A buyer wants one click from the header to enter a purchase order, and today's open purchase orders sitting on the dashboard.

Open the purchase order entry page, use the star icon, and choose Add to Shortcuts. Name the link Enter Purchase Order. That is the header click. Skip the Shortcuts portlet if the link list is not needed on the page body. The star menu does not require the portlet. If you do add the portlet, it lists Enter Purchase Order with every other shortcut. It does not list the open orders.

For the open orders, save a search of purchase orders that are still open, using the date the buyer means by today, such as transaction date or expected receipt date. On the home dashboard, click Personalize, add a Custom Search portlet, and select that search in Set Up. Put it in the center column if the buyer needs more than four data columns. That is the same pattern as items sold today.

Use a Report Snapshot for a report summary, and Quick Search only when someone will type a keyword. The layout stays personal until it is published. Lock Shortcuts protects published links from removal. It does not turn search rows into shortcuts.