I would like to have the ability to add a description for each tab. People do this in excel by creating a row/ column and merging them all and just adding text. Sometimes I need to explain a lot of stuff to my folks and the base description isn’t cutting it.
Thanks for the suggestion! This will be made available in the near future-- you’ll be able to add “descriptions” to tables, just as you already can today for bases and columns.
My team members interact more with the GUI than the API. In a single base, it would be tremendously helpful to have space in the GUI for adding documentation about specific base elements such as
individual tables - i would use this to explain the purpose of a table, identify the content steward, and highlight important linkages
individual views - i would use this to explain to my team members why this view exists, list the URLs of where it’s embedded offsite, and things to consider before making changes
columns - lower priority for me, but i could see this being useful metadata for users who consume data via API
In the meantime, I’m adding an extra table for my base called “About this base” so that I can explain to my team what’s up with the various references and views
AirTable keeps getting better and better. Huge fan here. You guys rock!
I’m wanting to document the database outside of Airtable so that people who will be using it know what’s going on before they jump in and start doing stuff. I don’t see any way to export descriptions (or the entity-relationship diagram, which is in another feature request).
Is it in the works to be able to export basic 411 about the structure (field name, type, possible selections, etc.)?
Just another thought on the edit description feature: If real estate is an issue and you have records that are short, (say just a few digits) then you might want to make the column narrow, use an abbreviation for the column header, and then use the description to give the full name. This I tried, but then I see that to indicate the fact there is a description, Airtable adds a small dot just to the left of the drop-down arrow indicator. This then covers up the last character or two of the abbreviation. In my situation, I ended up deleting the description because the abbreviation became unintelligible. So refinement would be to place the dot above the little arrow, and therefore not reduce the visible text in the column head.
