Set defaults on fields

+1 for default fields.

I am building a lot of forms that I want to go into specific views/structures/layouts. I can’t always expect the submitter to select or fill out the correct info. If you can add “select default” for a given field, and then “hide” field from form, this would allow said form to be submitted with that data. Verrrrry important and surprised it can’t be done already.

Need a way to automatically default collaborator field to person logged in using the table!

All fields allow to set defaults.

Can you allow to set defaults of all basic fields, please? It will really improve Airtable, thanks a lot!

I support this! This is important!

Please consider allowing single selects options to have a default value.

• 1 for allowing a single select option to have a default value. I’m new to airtable and have been trying to figure out how to do this for about 15 minutes :). Seems like a pretty odd feature gap considering it’s simplicity relative to the sophistication of some of the other awesome capabilities…which implies that this is intentional, but I have no idea why? bueller?

Make no sense to not have a default value for a single select…

Loving Airtable, but it is perplexing the inconsistent support for defaults.
There is no technical reason nor is there a significant effort for you to support defaults for select fields, and to support formula.s

Come on Airtable. Save us all many thousands of hack and research time and get this done.

Hi Katherine,
this key binding doesn’t seem to work on some foreign keyboards.
I’m on an Italian keyboard layout and the “;” key is secondary to the “,” key. I’ve tried CTRL+, and CTRL+SHIFT+, which would input the “;” but it won’t insert the current date into a Date field. Short of changing my keyboard layout to English, I am unable to use this feature.
Same goes for the < and > shortcuts for changing records because on my keyboard they are on the same key. It would be great if you guys could make Airtable work better on foreign keyboard layouts, too. More foreign users-friendly design choices, please :cry:

While Date fields don’t support formulas, Formula fields do support dates.

You can do what you describe here by having:

• Date = Date Field
• ReminderDate = Formula Field with this formula:
  DATEADD( Date, 30, 'day' )

+1 to allow any field to have a default value. I have a long text field that I’d like to have always start with the same basic content that can then be edited as a project evolves.

Big ol’ +1 from me! Especially to the single select field.

The workaround from @James_Steed and @Noel_Howell is nice, but you can’t group by that formula field in the Kanban view.

Like @Dan_Weaver pointed out, it looks like we’re stuck with that ugly “Uncategorized” stack. That could easily be resolved with a default value for single select.

If you really wanted to get fancy, you could go so far as to have a “field required” option on fields with a defined default value. If the user tries to delete the content in the field, it could revert to the default value. And add an option to disallow “create a new option named …” so that people can’t accidentally add to the single select options with a typo. In some cases I prefer to be forced to customize the field type, in other cases creating the new option as I add content is nice. Toggling that option on or off would be cool.

But now I’ve gone off the deep end. :swimming_woman: Those extra things would be nice to have, but the only thing I actually NEED is the ability to set a default value for a single select field.

Can’t we use the integration with Zapier to find and update the newest record - inserting desired “default” values into specific fields? I know it requires a paid Zapier account because it is a multi-step zap. This is what I’m trying to do now. My challenge is how to search for and select the most recent record…

@James_Taylor
Create a view that filters to show only records with an empty single select field (ie, “uncategorized” in kan ban), and have Zapier act on all new records in that view.

If Zapier does it’s job, that view should stay empty.

I also support this feature especially for single select field.

USE CASE:
When I create a row in GRID VIEW I want “TODO” to be added to the single field automatically so that my cards appears in the “TODO” column in kanban view automatically.

Increment Requests for this option.

In grid view if I group by a field and then add a row in a group, the current field is set to the group-by value. Grouping by Status and entering rows in the TODO group would do what Aurelien wants.

I’d like to set default default values fields other than group-by (grid view) or lane (Kanban view). Ultimately I want a “working with” option that 1) filters out all rows not linked to a given project and 2) enters the given project in the PROJECT field no matter what view I’m working with.

+1 I have a list of 100 items and it’s a tedious process to select each item one by one.

@Paul_Berg you can also copy and paste single select fields while in a grid view

+1 - defaults on checkbox, single select, date in particular would be helpful

+1 for defaults in single selects, and dare I say a combination of single select and formulas would rock.
The lack of it is not game-breaking, but would certainly cut off lots of otherwise manual work.

+1 - Defaults on Single Select & Text Fields

Being able to set default values via formulas on single select fields, date fields, text, etc. would be a game changer.

• Without the above feature KABANs and Grouped records that are driven by formula calculated fields cannot be moved into another grouping.

• Adding the ability to set a default value via formula on single selects, etc would allow users to have the best of both worlds.

See other places where this feature is either requested, or would have been requested if the user had thought about asking for it:

• New Matrix block, create Trello-style project management?
• Better Default Field Value Behavior
• Date Field Default Value
• Functions in field Default Value

In addition to being able to set a default value via formula, I would like to be able to UDPATE the value of a field (be it single select, text, date, or a multi select field) when the value of field that is in the formula is changed. For example, if I have a formula to calculate whether an item is DUE, OVERDUE, or NEARING DUE, or in GOOD STANDING… sometimes I need to quickly update the field to GOOD STANDING (despite such status being in conflict with dates). However, if a date changes after said manual override is made, I would like the DEFAULT value to be reapplied from the new calculation.

I totally agree with these suggestions. Having a default is a necessity. It would be really nice to have a required field as well as ability to specify whether new values should be added in single select or multi select fields
I SECOND THAT MOTION!!

Hey guys, I have found a way around for the default TODAY field using ZAPIER

TRIGGER - WHEN A NEW RECORD IS FOUND
then
FIND NEW RECORD BY UNIQUE ID
then
DELAY for 1 minute (Otherwise the task will be haulted)
then
UPDATE RECORD with CREATED TIME

This is possible because Zapier is registering the creation time of the ZAP.

Tadá!

Hope this helps