Same field -- unlinked in different tables

[jdboulder]

I have a base with two tables. One table is contacts while another is companies. For my contacts, I have a field called location which is a series of metros: NY, SF, DC, London, etc...

I'd like my companies' table location field to have the same list of locations. Is there a way to reuse the field, but not have them link to one another?

(I dont anticipate wanting to ever connect a contact to a company, and if i do it would be with different data than what i have in my contacts records anyway)

[ScottWorld]

Create a 3rd table called Locations, and link each of the other 2 tables to that 3rd table. 

[jdboulder]

ok so does that third table have a single field called locations?

Would you recommend doing the same thing for statuses if I want the status's list options to be the same? I have zapier triggers set up off my statuses if that matters.  

[ScottWorld]

Yes, you would start with a single field called locations. And then your 2 linked record fields will be automatically created for you, if you create the linked fields from the other 2 tables.

You can also learn more about linked records in my free Airtable training course, which you can take for free by signing up for a trial membership with LinkedIn Learning.

You mentioned Zapier, but I would highly recommend switching to Make instead. Make is infinitely more powerful than Zapier, yet it is significantly less expensive than Zapier. I give a brief comparison of Make vs. Zapier here, and I give a very short video tour of Make here.

p.s. If your company has a budget and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld