Improvements to expand and edit records

[Jordan_Scott1]

Hi all!

We are excited to share that as of today, we’ve made it easier for you - and your team - to expand and edit records in Airtable.

• We’re making it easier to edit records while in the expanded view. We’ve increased the area around fields (including moving the field label to the left to save vertical space) in the expanded view for each record and made improvements to the activity pane.
• We’ve also made it clear when a field is editable in expanded view so your collaborators can easily make edits.
• We’ve added a persistent action bar so that common actions like changing between records, turning on comments, and the record title all stay in the same place, even as you scroll through the details.

You can expect these updates to be reflected in your bases in the next two days. We’d love to hear feedback from you about this change, so please leave your feedback below!

[David_Pickard]

The new look is awful according to my colleagues - and I agree. They are all telling me it is more difficult to edit in expanded records. Normally they love the improvements you regularly make. Not this one. please change it back or give us an option to switch it off.

[David_Pickard]

Us too. My colleagues blamed me for this awful change

[Christopher_Sc2]

That was exactly my reaction.

Huh clean new interface.
Checks Airtable forums for an update.
Returns to Airtable
Yikes.

[Justin_Barrett]

Gotta chime in on this. As @David_Solimini said, the layout is an improvement, but many other things are not.

• Don’t like the dashes for empty fields (as @kuovonne said, it’s not just here; they’re annoying in interfaces as well)
• Bring back the icons, please?
• Currently a field only becomes “visible” when you mouse over it. It should be visible all the time. That said, I like how non-editable fields (formulas & other calculated fields, locked fields, etc.) don’t “highlight” upon mouseover, but seeing where the field is would still be nice. Maybe change the cursor to a lock when mousing over any non-editable field?

Simple and clean is great, but clarity is also important. The new design is clean and unclear, and lack of clarity means it’s not truly simple.

[Amoritia_Hewett]

I’m sorry but the new expanded records are SO hard to see! Everyone in my office has been struggling. I can’t understand why everything is white and indistinguishable.

[TONIA_KENDRICK]

OMG, it’s horrible. I can’t see anything. I may have to give up AirTable unless this changes back.

[Lillian_Baker]

This update is far from an improvement. Without backgrounds or borders around editable fields, it’s difficult to see where to edit at all. I agree with other users comments, regarding the “start typing” prompts which only create confusion for other team members. Alongside project planning our teams use Airtable for content planning which is image heavy. Now when the activity column is open, image files and other docs stack one on top of the other taking up far more space in the expanded view. It makes for a very long scroll. Please reverse the changes or give users the option to return to the “classic” view.

[Ally_Williamson]

Everything about the new expanded record field feels like it was created for the look rather than use. Giving users the option to customize how their expanded fields look would be great but this update feels like a step back. Echoing previous sentiments here, I thought there was something wrong with my editable rather than this being an update.

Having the field names to the left is a simple modification however with no backgrounds, borders or other such contrast in the fields it creates incredible strain in following where you are in a record.

Removing the field type icons ensure confusion when filling out records.

While the enlarged attached files field could be of use again maybe give the option to toggle between? Our company uses AT for creative and content management so sometimes we could have over 20 attachments in one field which creates a doom scroll.

[Jen_Rudd]

Thanks, @Jordan_Scott1

[Zachary_George]

I echo what so many others have added here, that these improvements, while I’m sure well-intentioned, are making it more challenging to navigate in an expanded view.

The background / border issue for me seems the most egregious, as that color contrast was necessary for my eyes. I could do without the ‘start typing…’ hint text, as well. Icons are a MUST for me.

Just adding my feedback along with others, to hopefully enhance this experience. Yes, any change will come with transition, but we lost some necessary functionality with this change.