How to copy and paste multiselect options into a new table as individual records?

[John_Stiles]

So I have a table with a multiselect field that contains about 1000 different values that were used as general metadata tags for video content (topics, people, companies, events, etc). I want to somehow be able to use this multiselect field across different tables but have the ability for users to add new tags/values and have these new tags available on all tables.

There’s probably a better way to do this, but I thought I could somehow convert these multiselect options into individual records on a new table… then somehow be able to turn it back into a multiselect type field? I was able to copy the multiselect field with its options into a new black table (just copied and pasted all values and then deleted it), but I don’t know how to convert them into records

The ultimate goal is to then have this synced multiselect field available in a form, but somehow give the user the ability to add new tags from within the form… somehow… might require a link in the form to a “add tags” form?

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, @John_Stiles! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: While you might think that having this as a multiple select field will be a benefit, the fact that you want to constantly update it leads me to think otherwise. Yes, there are ways of updating it with new options, but keeping multiple copies in sync between various tables will be a pain, and the only way that I know of to pull this off is with code, i.e. a script in either a Scripting action or an automation.

However, there is a way to pull this off with no code whatsoever. I wrote an example of how to do this just a few days ago. In short: leave it as a separate table so that it can be a master source of all options, and have the other tables link to this table.

Here’s the rundown of how to set this up. It might take some minor tweaking to get it working for your specific use case, but I think it’ll be a better way to go in the long run than the synced multiple select route:

Automation: Allow users to add new options to a predefined list via a form Show and tell

A question arose recently that’s come up a few times in the past: is it possible to give form users the ability to either pick an item from a predefined list or add their own “other” option, and have manually-added options actually appear in the list for later form users? For most of Airtable’s existence so far, this wasn’t possible (at least not without delving into the API, and even then I’m not completely sure that was doable). However, it can be done using Airtable’s automation feature. Here…