Simply the ability to set a default on fields other than numeric
On a date, the obvious is Today
On a string, just set a default value
+4Another +1 for this :boom:
Airtable, please stop making us use “Uncategorized” as the first column in our Kanban views! :slightly_smiling_face:
It would be great to be able to use a Formula to define the default value. It would allow to make all the use cases mentioned above work.
Katherine_Duh wrote:
Thanks for the feedback! Could you explain a little more about wanting to default to a relative date/time? Do you have a specific use case in mind for something like this? When you say “current time plus 2 hours,” does “current time” refer to the time at which the record was created, the time at which the date field was modified, or are you asking for something that automatically updates to always show the time two hours from the present time?
In the meantime, it might be useful for you to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + ; (or ⌘ + ; on Mac). This will automatically put in the current date/time into a datetime field (“current” here means “the time at which the keyboard command was input”).
The Ctrl + ; shortcut doesn’t seem to work on non-English keyboards since there is no “pure” button for semicolons. On most European keyboards it is accomplished by pressing Shift + , . Pressing Ctrl + Shift + , doesn’t work in Airtable.
May I suggest remapping this shortcut to a different key?
joe12south wrote:
+1 Really need this obvious feature.
Super-surprised to see that this isn’t a current feature. + 1.
+1, I’m using Airtable for sprint planning and I’d love for the default single-select option for my Tiling column to be “Backlog” rather than blank.
+1 but in particular single select (would be great to have new kanban items default to todo/available) and date default to today.
+1 For any status field such as in project management and book collection, a default state saves a lot of manual entry.
David_Moy_de_Vi wrote:
+1 This is essential and should be really easy to implement
Just a question, how fast does Airtable evolve ? At what horizon could this be implemented ?
+4This seems like a glaring omission. At our charity we have volunteers entering dates into forms tablets. 99% of the time it is the current date. But 1% of the time it isn’t so we can’t automatically record today’s date. Shortcuts don’t work on an Android tablet. Also the pop-up virtual keyboard gets in the way of the date picker. It is all very clunky. An option to make a date field default to today’s date would make life a lot easier.
Maybe you could use a Formula like this: IF({Date Input}, {Date Input}, CREATED_TIME())
You use the Date field as the date. If you don’t insert a date, it gets the Created Time.
Any idea when this is coming?
My use case: I record expenses, adding multiple records every work day, and they almost all need “today” as the date.
Need ability to set default value for single select fields. (Default status field to in process rather then it showing blank each time record is created)
+4It seems that date fields currently do not support default values. I frequently want a date field to default to the current date or current time or both. It would even be nice to be able to choose to default to a relative date or time (such as current time plus 2 hours, or current date plus 1 day). I think this would be a feature that a lot of people would use… who agrees?
Elias_Gomez_Sai wrote:
Maybe you could use a Formula like this: IF({Date Input}, {Date Input}, CREATED_TIME())
You use the Date field as the date. If you don’t insert a date, it gets the Created Time.
How do I implement this with my existing date field? Or do I need to create a new field for it referencing the original? If the latter, that rather defeats the object. I just want the existing date field to default to today, not add another field.
+4What I’ve done in a couple of Bases (which isn’t elegant) is to have a field to enter an override date and then have a formula provide the actual date for the record which uses the Created Date unless the Override Date is not entered:
IF({Invoice Date (if not now)} = BLANK(), CREATED_TIME(), {Invoice Date (if not now)})
In this case, field {Invoice Date (if not now)} is my override date and the result is an Invoice Date.
+3Victoria_Hay wrote:
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback! As it sounds like you’ve already discovered, we currently support setting default values only for single line text, number, currency, and percent fields. We’ve received requests for default values for other field types as well; thanks for letting us know that this would be useful to you! I’m happy to pass this along to the rest of the team :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:
If you’d like to prefill fields in a form, note that we do have a workaround, but the default values you set will be editable in the form. The workaround is to use query parameters on the form field URL, prefixed with prefill_. See example below:
Form link without prefill: https://airtable.com/shrvzKQgWAnDr2D67
Form link with prefill: https://airtable.com/shrvzKQgWAnDr2D67?prefill_Full+Name=Victoria&prefill_Email=support@airtable.com
Thank you for idea Victoria but unfortunately there is no way to use this method for the current date, such as NOW() or TODAY(). I hope this feature will be added.
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