Add new record button at top of desktop table

[Aaron_Owen]

On the iOS app there’s a yellow plus sign at the bottom of the table view that allows you to easily add a new record to the table despite not being scrolled to the bottom of the table.

I would like to be able to add a new record on the desktop version without having to scroll down to the bottom of a (sometimes very large) table. I have a people / contacts table with ~1600 records and in order to add a new record, I currently have to scroll to the very bottom.

Filters could help this issue by filtering records so that only a subset of the table’s records are shown which would make the table appear smaller, but I’ve run into another issue when I add a new record to a filtered table: usually the new record is filtered immediately because the filter is based on the record containing a certain value, which the new record doesn’t have. Being able to have columns populate a default value on new records would really help this situation.

But I’d love to be able to add a new record with a button at the top of the table which would add a new record and take me directly to that new record in the interface.

[alex_clanfield]

I would love this as well!

would be great if it could launch the equivalent of the expand record so i can enter a new record with the form overlay with perhaps an option to then take you to the bottom of the table if you wish to enter a record this way.

[Kasra_Kyanzade1]

Thanks for the feedback, we’ll definitely think about it!

In the meantime, you can use a few keyboard shortcuts to make things easier:

1. If any cell in a grid view is focused, Ctrl-Down Arrow (Cmd-Down Arrow if you’re on a Mac) will instantly take you to the last row of the grid view.

2. If any cell in a grid view is focused, Shift+Enter will create a new empty row below it.

[David_Wiese]

Right click for the pop-up menu anywhere in your table and choose Insert Record Above or Insert Record Below. I would assume most of us are taking advantage of the Apply Sort functionality in our Views, so where you create a new record in your table should make no difference.

[Aaron_Owen]

Unless I need to sort by chronological entry. I supposed I could sort by reverse chronological entry before inserting at the top of the table, but in order for that to be efficient, sorting would need to persist in views in a way that it currently doesn’t. I’ve also put that request in.

[Claire_Armstron]

Would love a “quick add” button in a base to quickly add a row and collect its data, no matter what view you’re in, or what filters are on. Would even be cool to have the quick add button on the home page, where you can select a base first, then enter, and even make it a browser extension.
I know you can create a form, but it’s a little clunky at times, and requires bookmarking to get back to easily.

[Francis_Barton]

I can’t believe that an “add a new record” button or menu item is not the most obvious, basic piece of functionality that Airtable would provide! The current system is so counter-intuitive.
I was staring at the database for ages, looking everywhere to try to work out how to simply add a new record, thinking it must be me, I’m just not looking hard enough. Very frustrating.
And the keyboard shortcut Shift+Enter doesn’t work for me (Firefox on Windows) - I would be happy if only this worked. Scrolling down hundreds of entries to get to a new line is really not user-friendly behaviour!

[Katherine_Duh]

Hi Francis!

Our engineers just checked and the keyboard shortcut Shift+Enter should be working fine on Firefox for Windows. In order for this shortcut to work, you need to have the cursor focused on the grid (that is to say, click into one of the cells to select it first). If you’ve selected into a cell and this shortcut still isn’t working, please write into our support team so that we can troubleshoot with you. Thanks!

[Tom_Johnson]

Tried that, too. But all we see, with a right click, is the “insert record below” arrow. And a record is inserted way down in the grid. And it can’t be copied or inserted higher up in the occupied matrix.

[Hilary_Killam]

Why oh why can’t there be a top-of-page button for “add new record”?

[Flavio_Lira]

Help us out here, Wizards of Airtable! Scrolling down to the bottom of the table only to add a new record is very cumbersome, especially with team members that are not tech-savvy and reluctant to adopt new tools.