Lookup Fields interface is inconsistent for Forms and existing Records

[adamsimms]

Why is the form interface different than editing an existing record for selected related/lookup fields in another table? The form interface for adding a new record is very minimal and only shows 1 field while editing an existing record shows multiple fields. Ideally, I want the new record form to show more details so I can filter out the best option. Is there any way to get the new form field to show more details?

I've attached the screenshots below to show the differences: 

• Adding new record form 
• Editing existing record

Base details: I have a base with multiple tables that use lookup fields. 

• 1 table for Publications
• 1 table for References

The References table has a lookup to relate to individual Publications.

[ScottWorld]

Unfortunately, it has been this way since the beginning of Airtable. You may want to submit this as a feature request to support@airtable.com.

One easy workaround for this would be to create a formula field as your primary field. This formula field would show all the different field values that you want to see.

Otherwise, this functionality is natively available with Fillout's advanced forms for Airtable.

Fillout offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records from a form, display Airtable lookup fields & Airtable rollup fields & Airtable attachments & formulas on forms, dynamically & conditionally filter linked record fields by any values that you would like, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, accept payments on forms, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, create new linked records on a form, display as many fields as you want to see in a linked record selection list (even attachment fields), connect a single form to dozens of external apps simultaneously, limit the number of linked records that can be chosen, upload an unlimited amount of attachments simultaneously, add CAPTCHAs to your form, add choice matrixes to your forms, direct integration with hundreds of apps like Calendly & Google Maps on your forms, and so much more. 

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

[adamsimms]

Thanks Scott. This is a cool solution, unfortunately, my team works within Airtable so having to go to another URL/site outside of Airtable isn't an obvious solution.

[ScottWorld]

You’re welcome! I agree with you that it’s not the ideal solution, but it’s our best option at the moment. (It’s free, too!) To make things easier for my users, I usually add a button on the interface to jump them to the appropriate Fillout form.

And remember that you can also create a formula field as your primary field in Airtable. This formula field would show all the different field values that you want to see.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

Not ideal, but you could try making your primary field a formula field that includes the data you want to show up in the form, and so it'd be:

[Example Author] - [Example Child Text] - [Year of Publication] etc

[adamsimms]

This solution actually works pretty well for us. Thanks so much!