 filters filters are used to reduce the data set that views provides that is to say without any filters applied views will return all of your content you don t want that so at least some filters must be used some very commonly used filters the node published filter is used to restrict a node view to only nodes that are are have the published box checked this can be very important to prevent users from viewing content they should not have access to the node promoted to front page filter can be used to show only nodes that have the promote to front page turned on the node type filter is useful for showing only certain types of nodes let s say you wanted users to see only nodes that were book nodes or a combination of book nodes and staffblog nodes this filter allows you to select exactly that the user current filter will show only nodes that the logged in user has authored the node post date filter can be used to show only nodes posted before after or between a range of dates the above list is only a tiny fraction of the filters available in views referenced here to give an idea of the kinds of tasks filters can accomplish  