Navigating Cognos 11

Connecting to Cognos

Cognos can be reached from on-campus or off-campus by visiting myHill and clicking on the Cognos Application.  If you need access to Cognos, please submit a request via our Application Security service.

Customize the Welcome Screen

The first time you access Cognos you will see a message welcoming you to Cognos with some links to resources.  If you want to hide that message and just see recent reports you can take the following steps.

1. Click Dismiss at the top-right of the blue "What's New" bar to hide the message.
2. Toggle the Welcome Message and links to Cognos resources off by sliding the Show welcome switch to the left so it turns white instead of blue.

Recent reports will then display in the middle of the screen. This list will grow over time as you start to run reports in Cognos 11. 

The default view is called "Tile view". You can see a more compact view of recent reports by clicking the list view option just above your reports on the right.

Running Reports

Reports are stored a bit differently in Cognos 11. Instead of seeing an alphabetical list of folders, you'll see an alphabetical list of everything you have access to, so you might have to scroll down to find the content you're looking for.  

To find a specific report:

1. Click the 'Team content' folder on the left to browse.
2. Scroll through the list to find the report or folder you're looking for.
3. Click on the Folder Name or Report to open it.

If you're familiar with earlier versions of Cognos, running reports in Cognos 11 should look mostly the same, with all the familiar parameter screens you're used to seeing.

Creating Shortcuts

If you have a lot of folders or reports to look through, you can create shortcuts to the content you use more frequently.

1. Scroll through the Team content folder as described above.
2. Instead of clicking on the name of the report or folder, click on the ellipsis to the right. A new submenu will display.
3. Click Create shortcut. A dialog box will appear.

• Click the folder in the top-right corner to chose your My content folder.
• Click the Create Shortcut button at the bottom. You can do this with folders OR reports.
• To see the shortcut, go to the My content folder on the right.

Renaming Shortcuts

By default, your shortcuts will be named "Shortcut to NAME OF ORIGINAL OBJECT".  To rename the shortcut:

1. Go to My content and hover over the shortcut.
2. Click on the ellipsis (⋯) to the right of the name. A submenu will appear.
3. Select Properties from the list.
4. A new frame will open with information about your report or folder. Hover to the right of the name and you'll see a pencil icon appear with an Edit tooltip.
5. Click the pencil to change the name of the report to whatever you'd like.
6. Press Enter when finished to save the change.