# Make the dashboard yours: widgets and search shortcuts

Build your own dashboard from ten widget types — queues, checked-out documents, folder shortcuts, and the search widgets that put a specific lookup one keystroke from sign-in.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: user · Time: 15 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/getting-started/make-the-dashboard-yours

**At the end of this guide your dashboard shows your work — the queues you check, the folder you live in, and a search box pre-aimed at the field you look things up by all day — arranged how you want it.**

The dashboard is yours alone: every user builds their own, changes here affect nobody else, and a brand-new account starts empty with exactly the right hint — "Your dashboard is empty. Use 'Add Widget' to get started."

## Add a widget

1. On the **Dashboard**, click **Add Widget** (top right).

2. Pick a **Widget Type**:
   
   | Widget | What it shows |
   |---|---|
   | **Approval Queue** | Documents waiting on your approval |
   | **Work Queue** | Your work-queue items |
   | **Coding Queue** | Documents waiting for index values |
   | **Signature Queue** | Documents waiting for signatures |
   | **Checked Out** | Documents you have checked out |
   | **Recent & Favorites** | Where you've been and what you've starred |
   | **Search** | A search box, optionally scoped to one catalog |
   | **Folder** | A shortcut into one folder |
   | **Global Field Search** | A search box aimed at one specific field |
   | **Approval Process Stage Totals** | Document counts per stage of one approval process |

3. Fill in the widget's options (only some types have any — see below) and click **Add Widget**.

*[Screenshot: Building a Global Field Search widget: the field is the only required choice, and leaving Catalogs empty searches them all.]*

*[Screenshot: A dashboard being assembled: each card carries a drag handle for rearranging and a Remove control; configurable types add an Edit control beside it.]*

## The three shortcut widgets worth configuring

- **Search** — optionally pick a **Catalog** (default is all catalogs). The tile is a search box with a **Search** button; Enter works too.
- **Global Field Search** — pick the **Global Field** (required) and optionally limit **Catalogs**. This is the power move for anyone who looks documents up by the same field all day: an invoice-number box or a client-ID box sitting on your home page. Date-type fields get a date picker instead of a text box, and the tile deliberately has no button — press Enter or click the little search icon in the box.
- **Folder** — click **Select Folder**, pick the folder, and the tile becomes an **Open Folder** shortcut straight into it.

**Approval Process Stage Totals** rounds out the configurable set: pick the process (listed as *Catalog > DocType > Process*) and the tile shows live counts per stage — a manager's at-a-glance load meter.

## Arrange and maintain

- **Rearrange** by dragging a card's grip handle; the dashboard is a four-column grid on a full-size window, and empty columns light up as drop targets while you drag.
- **Edit** (the pencil on the card) exists only for the four configurable types — Search, Folder, Global Field Search, and Stage Totals. A widget's *type* can't be changed after creation; to turn a Search widget into a Folder widget, remove it and add the other.
- **Remove** deletes the card immediately. There's no reset-to-default — the default is empty, so your dashboard is only ever what you've built.

**Success check:** add a Global Field Search widget for the field you use most, press Enter in it with a value you know exists, and land on the results — that round trip is the whole point of the feature.

## What's next

- [Your first day in Content Central](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/getting-started/your-first-day-in-content-central)
- [Search for documents](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/search-and-find/search-for-documents)