Cognos User Interface and Navigation Basics

Overview

This article highlights some key features of the Cognos user interface, along with tips for navigating folders and finding reports.

Cognos Analytics navigation highlights

Cognos Analytics has some key navigation and user interface features that help users navigate the content/folder structure, find and run reports, and manage their user profile and associated content. Some of these key features are highlighted below.

Cognos front page user interface with key navigation features highlighted

  1. Navigation menu: Show/hide access to Enterprise report folders (Finance, HR, and Student) along with the main Content screen and Recent-ly run reports;
  2. Report switcher: flips between open reports/screens;
  3. Quick links shortcuts: Access to IDR's service portal page and other important content;
  4. Search box: Search for report and folder content
  5. Help menu: About page, learning center and other IBM Cognos resources;
  6. Notifications: Shows IBM Cognos notifications;
  7. Current user menu: Access to account information, report schedules and sign out;
  8. Data refresh status: presents the time the data was refreshed and success / failure;

Content Navigation

Selecting the Content option launches a screen that allows users to navigate the folder structure of Cognos Analytics.  

Cognos Content screen with key folders

  1. My content: contains user-specific content. This content cannot be seen or accessed by other Cognos users. 
  2. Team content: contains all shared folders, including departmental folders, user acceptance testing, and other user-managed content.
  3. Favorites: Provides a convenient option to group all content that a user has favorited using the heart icon to the right of report and folder names.
  4. Finance Reports: Enterprise-level reports that were created and are maintained by Finance subject matter experts on campus and the Data and Decision Support Team.
  5. HR Reports: HR-specific reports that are maintained by Human Resource subject matter experts and the Data and Decision Support Team.
  6. Student Reports: Student-specific Enterprise content.

A complete list of Enterprise reports is available: UO Enterprise Reports List

Content View Toggle

While in Content navigation mode, users can toggle between Tile and List views. List view will be more familiar for long-time Cognos users. The image below highlights the toggle buttons and displays an example of list view.

Cognos content view options

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