---
title: "Customize the Layout of Your Views"
slug: "customize-layout-views"
description: "Customize your Pigment Views with Tabular or Tree mode, adjusting row height, headers, and totals for clearer, more flexible data visualization."
tags: ["blocks", "boards", "Grid Display Modes", "Pigment Boards", "Reporting Data Visualization ", "Tree View"]
updated: 2026-04-02T13:38:12Z
published: 2026-04-02T13:38:12Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.pigment.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Customize the Layout of Your Views

Use the Layout tab and grid formatting options in Pigment to control how your grid is displayed.

This article explains how to configure layout settings such as Tabular and Tree Views, totals, and display options, as well as how to refine your grid using column and header adjustments like freezing columns and resizing widths.

## Access Layout options

To access the Layout options, open the View and select **Layout** from the Pigment toolbar.

From the**Layout**tab, you can adjust how your grid is displayed, including:

- Display mode (Tabular or Tree)
- Row height
- Hierarchy indentation
- Row limits (limit to the first 1,000 rows)
- Gridlines (vertical and horizontal)
- Headers (expand/collapse controls for rows and columns)
- Totals (positioning on rows or columns)

These settings help you tailor the grid for better readability and navigation. You can also adjust headers and columns directly in the grid for additional customization.

### Display mode

Select **Tabular**or **Tree**Mode to format the display of your View.

> [!NOTE]
> **ℹ️ Note**
> 
> In **Tabular** mode, Dimensions in rows are displayed in separate columns.

- **Row height.** Controls the size of rows within a grid. For Metrics using the Text data type, selecting Large or Extra Large wraps the text onto multiple lines. The available row height options are:

| Size | Pixels |
| --- | --- |
| Extra Small | 20 |
| Small | 28 |
| Medium | 44 |
| Large | 58 |
| Extra Large | 108 |
- **Densify headers.**Optimizes space by displaying multiple Dimensions in the same column when they are not used together in a single Metric, reducing the overall width of the grid.

> [!NOTE]
> **ℹ️ Note**
> 
> With this option toggled on, there are cases where swapping two Dimensions in the Configure panel has no effect. This occurs when the layout cannot be adjusted due to the other Dimensions in the View. If needed, disable the option to swap the Dimensions.
  - Toggle **off**. The Table's View displays the Dimensions one after the other, showing a Total header in case the Dimension selected in the Configure panel is not defined on the Metric.
  - Toggle **on**. The table View makes row headers as compact as possible by fitting them into the same column. For example, if your Table contains four Dimensions but each Metric only uses two, the layout displays two row headers instead of four.
- **Limit to first 1,000 rows.**Displays only the first 1,000 rows to help prevent performance issues with large datasets. This option is compatible with sorting, filtering, and page selection, and is available in the following conditions:
  - The View contains only Metrics in columns
  - The View does not include subtotals
  - Expand/Collapse (see below) is toggled****off
  - [Hide empty rows and columns](/v1/docs/filter-data-pigment#hide-empty-rows-or-columns) is selected

### Gridlines and column settings

- **Show vertical gridlines.** Displays vertical lines between columns to improve readability and separation of data.
- **Show horizontal gridlines.**Displays horizontal lines between rows to improve readability and separation of data.

You can also adjust column display directly in the View:
- **Adjust column width.**Resize columns in a Metric, Table, or List by dragging the column divider in the grid.

For more precise sizing, right-select a column header, then select **Column width** and enter the width in pixels.
  - **Metric or Table.** Select **Apply** to apply the sizing to all columns in a Metric or Table.
  - **Dimension or List.** For Dimension or List columns, you can select **Apply**to modify a single column or **Apply to all** to apply the width across all columns in that Dimension or List.

> [!NOTE]
> ℹ️ **Note**
> 
> If your column contains multiple headers, for example a parent such as **Region** and a child such as**Country**, Resize column width only appears at the child level. The width of the parent is the sum of the widths of its children. In Tables, if your columns include Metrics at the child level, you can manage their widths individually, but you have the option to apply the width across all Metrics.
- **Collapse all columns**. Collapses all columns to reduce the overall width of the grid. Right-select a column header and select **Collapse all column****s**.
- **Freeze columns**. To freeze a column or group of columns, select the down arrow that appears when you hover over the column header you want to freeze, or right-select the header, then select **Freeze up to column X**. This freezes all columns from the left up to the selected column. **To unfreeze**, select the column header or down arrow and choose **Unfreeze columns**. This removes all frozen columns.

> [!NOTE]
> ℹ️**Note**
> 
> If your column contains multiple headers, for example a parent such as **Region**and a child such as **Country**, **Freeze up to column x** is only available at the parent level. To freeze at a lower level, you must first remove the parent. Freezing applies to column position, not the underlying data. If a user does not have access to the first column, the first visible column in their View will be frozen. Freeze columns is compatible with [Test & Deploy](/v1/docs/introduction-test-deploy).

> [!WARNING]
> ⚠️**Important**
> 
> Your changes are preserved when you export data through the Excel export or Google Sheets.

### Headers

- **Show row headers.**In Tabular mode, you can toggle row headers on or off. These headers display the names of the Blocks pivoted into rows. When Metrics are in rows, the header displays “Metrics” rather than the name of the Metric.
- **Show buttons to expand/collapse rows.**Displays controls to expand or collapse rows, allowing you to show or hide different levels of a hierarchy.
- **Show buttons to expand/collapse columns.**Displays controls to expand or collapse columns, allowing you to show or hide different levels of a hierarchy.

You can also adjust header display manually to customize your View:

- **Header height and text wrap.** To adjust the header height, drag the header divider directly in the grid. When the header is large enough to fit two lines of text, text wrapping is applied automatically.

## Expand/Collapse

The **Expand/Collapse** options let Members show or hide groups of data in grids. This supports exploration of specific levels of information while keeping the overall View organized.

- The **+** and **-**controls can be enabled with the **Display buttons to expand/collapse rows** and **Display buttons to expand/collapse columns** options in the layout panel.

**In Tree View:**

- Expand/collapse controls on rows are always visible
- You can remove indentation between hierarchy levels for a flatter Tree View. In the **Layout** tab, toggle**Show hierarchy indentation** to Off to remove indentation in the grid.

> [!NOTE]
> ℹ️ **Note**
> 
> Members interactions with the grid such as expanding or collapsing certain elements are read-only and do not impact the grid visibility for other Members. The changes can be saved at the View level to configure a new default visibility for all Members.

To change an individual Item’s visibility:

- Select the **plus symbol (+) or minus symbol (-)** next to a parent item to show/hide its children or right-select a row or column header, then under Collapse or Expand, select Row or Column.

To bulk expand or collapse Items, right-select a row or column header, then under **Collapse** or **Expand** select:

- **All rows of (Dimension Item)** or **All columns of (Dimension Item)**. Expand/Collapse all Rows of the Dimension Item to apply the same state across that level. For example, if you collapse all Items in `EMEA` to display only Countries such as `France`, `Spain`, then any new Items such as Germany will be collapsed by default.
- **All Rows** or **All Columns**. Expand or collapse the entire grid to apply the visibility state globally to all rows or columns. For example, collapsing the entire grid shows only high-level categories, such as `Region`, so that only parent Items like `EMEA` or `AMER` are visible, while their child Items remain hidden.

### How to configure expansion states

You can configure and save the default visibility of Items in the grid, so the View always opens in a predefined way for Members.

Each Dimension Item has an expansion state: it is either expanded or collapsed. Items that have children can also define whether their child Items are expanded or collapsed by default.

#### Example

Using the following hierarchy as an example. By default, new grids open fully expanded when first created. Any new child Items added will be automatically expanded. For example, adding **Germany** will automatically expand it to reveal its child Items, in this instance, Berlin is revealed.

![Table showing data for Germany and Berlin added to existing locations.](https://cdn.document360.io/e47cfe35-dc28-40c7-a083-6cf003073d8e/Images/Documentation/Collapse all row columns - Expanded.png)

Configure grid visibility to suit your planning and analysis

You can change the default expansion state of child Items with **Collapse** or **Expand > All rows of (Dimension Item)**. In our base example, we collapse **All rows of EMEA**, and then add **Germany > Berlin**. This is the result:

![Comparison of data tables showing the addition of Germany with its value.](https://cdn.document360.io/e47cfe35-dc28-40c7-a083-6cf003073d8e/Images/Documentation/Collapse all row columns - Collapsed.png)

Change the default expansion state of child Items

## Totals

You can control where totals appear in the View. By default, totals are displayed after or below their component parts. To change this, toggle on **Show totals on first column** or **Show totals on first row**.

**Tree mode**

- Dimensions in rows are displayed within the same column, one below the other
- **Show totals on first row** and **Show totals on first column** are available
- **Show totals on first row** is toggled on by default