Entering new record covers data

[Tony_Sims]

When entering a new record were I have sort perimeters, the new line covers data already entered, as I am entering the new record. I need to see the previously entered line while entering the new record… Is there a way to stop this?

Tony SIms

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, Tony! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: Not currently. That’s Airtable’s way of saying, “Just FYI, this record is moving somewhere else in the list once you’re done editing its details.” The only way to avoid that is to temporarily disable sorting before entering new records by flipping the “Keep sorted” switch in the Sort popup, then reenable it after entry.

[Bill_French]

@Tony_Sims,

Tony_Sims:

I need to see the previously entered line while entering the new record…

Here’s a crazy approach; perhaps a kludge of massive proportions.

• Imagine a simple web widget running in a block;
• The widget has a button that runs an API process;
• The records would need some way of letting you indicate which record you were about to edit (a marker of some sort);
• The API process retrieves the record you are about to edit (based on a marker that you set) and renders it in the block.

Unfortunately, the Airtable API is unable to provide any indications of a selected record (far left check box), so it would need an actual field that is selected to know which one to render back in the block.

Airtable also has no ability to drag and drop a record on a block (Airtable developers need to be spanked for that - seriously, information should easily interchange between elements in your own app).

Lastly, the Airtable rendering engine does not include the rows and columns so we can’t inspect the DOM to see where you are about to edit a row.

If this wacky idea is something you want to pursue, I’ll spool up an example just to see if it flies.