There is not a built-in way to have the +
icon go straight to new record.
I use a similar workflow in several bases, and the way I handle it is that I have a keyword, “new”, that I make sure is never in the Primary field of any records. This way, I can always hit Enter
in that linked record field (or click the +
), type the word “new”, and hit enter - it will never find a result matching “new”, so it will automatically highlight the + Add New Record
link at the bottom, and hitting Enter
activates that link to create a new record.
It works well enough that I am satisfied to continue doing it this way. Hope that helps!