New: Setting custom record terminology

[Ayesha_Bose]

:wave: Hello! I’m Ayesha, a Product Manager here at Airtable. We’re so excited to share a new feature with you that allows you to change the term “record” in the product to a term that’s more specific to your table.

What is this?

When you name a table, you can now optionally select a name for your records from a list of 50+ options. You’ll see that name used in the product where you see your table or view, so you can more easily understand what actions you’re taking.

For example, instead of seeing the generic “Add record” action:

You can now override this “record” terminology by specifying the work that you want to track. If you choose to call your record a “task”, you and your team can now see “Add task”:

How can I set this for a table?

You can select this from the dropdown next to a table name, under “Rename table”:

What options can you choose from?

You can choose from a list of 50+ options, based on common workflows (Project, Task, Event, Request, Campaign, etc.). We do not support the ability to add in your own term.

If you don’t see an option you’re looking for, let us know by filling out this form to request a new term.

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We’re looking forward to hearing what you think, please let us know if you have any questions.

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[Karlstens]

Yah, I just did a demo to new users, their first hands on with Airtable - and this auto-naming caught me off guard.

[ScottWorld]

I just sent an email to support@airtable.com about this issue. You might want to do the same thing, in case this thread is no longer being monitored by Airtable.

[Karlstens]

Good afternoon Ayesha, I’d love to have an update on the next batch of terms coming through the approval process. :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Although the more I think about it, the more I wish that users were simply free to create their own.

For those of us still requesting terms via the form, are we OK to enter multiple terms per form, or should we only enter one term per form?

[ScottWorld]

ScottWorld:

For example, my clients have experienced all of these problems:

• They created a table called “Company Requirements”. Airtable automatically chose “company” as the record term.
• They created a table called “Order Line Items”. Airtable automatically chose “order” as the record term.
• They created a table called “Employee Contracts”. Airtable automatically chose “employee” as the record term.

I just discovered that the “reverse problem” is also true:

• If you create a table with a plural name, such as “Properties”, this new feature does not automatically choose “Property” as the custom name.

So, it would be best to just turn off the auto-guessing naming functionality altogether, so that everybody can expect a consistent experience.

[Karlstens]

Woohoo! I just spotted some new terms, and some of which I asked for via the Form. How exciting, this is too cool, thanks for adding them!!

[Tito_Alverio]

Simply letting users create custom terms would solve so many issues. Instead you're having to keep adding more glossary terms, and then trying to support foreign language terms.

Custom terms = limitless options, no matter the language.

Fixed terms = 200 or so terms