Change (customize) multiple fields from single to long text

[Catherine_Conol]

When I import a spreadsheet, how can I change all fields from single text to long text? I am changing each one manually. It’s killing my soul.

[kuovonne]

The only way to change a field type is to manually change it.

Another method (if you aren’t too far along) is to create the fields in Airtable before you paste in the data from a spreadsheet.

On the other hand, you might not need to change all the fields from single line text to long text. Single line text fields can hold quite a lot of text–they can contain a full paragraph worth of text. Is there a specific reason you need them to be long text fields?

[Catherine_Conol]

I’m importing survey responses that can be a lot of text. It would be great if I could start a table that allows me to choose a field type before I upload content.

[kuovonne]

How are you importing the survey response? Are you copy/pasting or are you using one of the import blocks?

[Catherine_Conol]

I’m importing a .csv file.

To be honest, I don’t understand blocks very well.

[kuovonne]

The “Import a spreadsheet” menu option for creating a new table has very limited options. You cannot specify the field type when you import records this way.

However, you can also setup table first, then import the contents, either through copy/paste from a spreadsheet or via the import block (if you have a Pro subscription).

With copy/paste you need to make sure that the columns match up.

With the import block, you need column headings, but they do not have to be in the same order.