Adding in new "Testimonials"-- I want to put them at the end of the list, NOT the beginning. Can I change this?

[Matt_Peterson]

Hello,

My wife just started using AirTable.

As part of her job, her employer wants her to track Testimonials. Currently, the AirTable program has all the Testimonials listed in order, from 1-70.

Her employer want her to add-in new Testimonials at the END of the list-- so most recent Testimonials will be the higher numbers in order.

However, the program is causing any NEW Testimonials to instead be listed as #1, and then moving the rest of the Testimonials down a number position.

Is there any way to adjust the settings to do what she wants?

Thank you!

[Bill_French]

Matt_Peterson:

However, the program is causing any NEW Testimonials to instead be listed as #1, and then moving the rest of the Testimonials down a number position.

There are far more clever experts here than I concerning native sorting features, but these points come to mind.

• No data base should depend on order number; rather - they should be based on logical sorting and ordering using things like dates, IDs, etc.
• Have you looked at building new views and sorting them in various ways?

[Matt_Peterson]

Hi, thanks for taking your time to respond!

My wife is just using the grid and info provided to her; she didn’t build it, or choose how the info was sorted.

My wife was hesitant to ask her boss how to fix the problem, because she didn’t want her boss to assume she wasn’t “tech savvy” (she IS, she just hasn’t used THIS program before!)

It’s easy for her to VIEW the data, to see names listed alphabetically, or see the date each Testimonial is entered. The problem is that anytime she adds a Testimonial, it goes to number 1 in the list view, but all the OTHER Testimonials remain in the order in which they were typed in, according to the date.

So for example, it shows something like this currently:

1. Jane Smith 1-1-2020
2. Bob Johnson 2-3-2020
3. Carrie Jones 3-1-2020

But when my wife tries to ADD a testimonial, the default view becomes THIS:

1. New Person 10-14-2020
2. Jane Smith 1-1-2020
3. Bob Johnson 2-3-2020
4. Carrie Jones 3-1-2020

So, not sure how to fix this.

Even though you can choose to view by Date, the list of Testimonials is already listed by Date by default, yet any NEW testimonial entered displaces the person listed at the number one spot.

:frowning:

[Bill_French]

Matt_Peterson:

that anytime she adds a Testimonial, it goes to number 1 in the list view, but all the OTHER Testimonials remain in the order in which they were typed in, according to the date.

This suggests the default view is ordered by date and there is no date on new ones that are added, which would cause it to sort to the top. Is that what’s happening?

[Matt_Peterson]

Well, apparently all the PREVIOUS Testimonials had a date associated with them.

However, there is no date field available when adding new ones. It doesn’t make sense!

So, my wife has emailed her boss about it, and we are waiting to hear back.

Thank you again for taking time for our question!

:slightly_smiling_face:

[Bill_French]

Matt_Peterson:

However, there is no date field available when adding new ones. It doesn’t make sense!

Bingo! That’s what I thought.

[kuovonne]

Welcome to the Airtable community!

How is your wife creating the new testimonial? Doe she create the new record and it immediately moves on her? After she enters the date, does the record move to the proper position?

It is possible that your wife has “keep sorted” turned on in her view. If so, records can move around unexpectedly. This support article on sorting records might help.

[Matt_Peterson]

Hi,

There is no field to enter the date.

THAT is probably why anytime she tries to enter a new testimonial, it jumps straight to number 1 on the list.

Still no response from the boss as to why this is happening.

I’ll look at the grid myself later and see what other info I can provide.

Thank you!

[kuovonne]

If there is no field to enter the date, how is the date being completed? For example, is there a formula, lookup, or automation that calculate the date? You show a date in your example.

By the way, thank you for supporting your wife in what sounds like a puzzling situation. Please also let her know that she is welcome to join us on the forums as well.

[Matt_Peterson]

Hello again, after looking at Airtable in person with my wife, there never WERE any date’s associated with the names. So there are no date fields at all.

Her boss confirmed that the testimonials were simply entered in sequentially, in the order they were received.
So testimonials entered FIRST (in the past, over the last few years) are in order from oldest to most recent.

Small numbers mean older testimonials, higher numbers more recent.

But, the problem remains that any time a new testimonial is entered, it goes straight to #1, displacing that very first testimonial from years ago.

Is there any way to change how these are sorted, so that new testimonials can go to the END of the list? Surely there must be!

I did look, and I cannot sort them by date, as that is not an option.