Accessing the Display Variant Functions

You can create a display variant for a line-item report whenever you see either the Change layout button (Figure 15.2B) or Current display variant button (Figure 15.3A) in the application toolbar of its output screen. Wherever you see the Change layout button, which starts the procedure for creating a display variant, it is accompanied by two other buttons for working with display variants:

• Choose (sometimes labeled Get), which enables you to apply an existing variant to a line-item report (Figure 15.2C)
  
  
• Save, which enables you to save a variant once you create it (Figure 15.2D)
  
  

Figure 15.3. Command buttons for working with display variants are found in the application toolbars of many output screens.

(The Change Layout button is not usually accompanied by these two buttons, however.)

In addition to these buttons, you can also follow the menu path Settings > Layout to display four commands for working with display variants (Figure 15.4). Three of these commands are redundant with the buttons in the application toolbar.

• Change (or Current on some screens), which begins the procedure for creating a display variant
  
  
• Choose (or Get on some screens), which enables you to apply an existing display variant to a line-item report
  
  
• Save, which enables you to save a display variant once you create it
  
  
• Administration (or Manage or Management on some screens), which enables you to delete an existing variant (and the only variant command without a corresponding button in the application toolbar)
  
  

Figure 15.4. The menu bar of all output screens contains all four commands for working with display variants. The menu path for starting the procedure for creating a display variant is shown here.

You may be asking yourself, Why are there two separate sets of buttons and commands for executing the same functions in a software application?

The reason for this discrepancy is that SAP is not really a single software application, but a set of separately developed applications that are programmed to work together. Consequently, design changes that are made in some modules are not always immediately carried over into other modules.

Where such discrepancies occur, we identify all the alternative buttons and commands that you might encounter throughout SAP.