Default Views for Expanded Records & Expanded Linked Records

[Ryan_Jaccard]

In our CRM, we have a COMPANY Table and a CONTACT Table (among others). Within each of these tables, we have a CLIENT view and SUPPLIER view.

PROBLEM: EXPANDED RECORDS
That said, when I expand a record in the Contact Table > Supplier View, I’m inundated with irrelevant Client-Contact-specific fields (ex. ‘Won Projects’) haphazardly stacked at the bottom of the record. It’s become very confusing and bulky for our staff and, in my opinion, it’s probably a big reason so many of us wish we could ‘link bases’; but I won’t dive into that.

PROBLEM: EXPANDED LINKED RECORDS
Likewise, when I’m in the Company Table > Client View, and I want to access Contact Info for one of our Client companies, I’ll simply click to expand one of the linked records (linked from the Contact Table). In this case, I’m still inundated with Supplier-contact-specific fields, lumped together at the bottom. Ultimately, we need these gone!

SOLUTION
I’d love for a given record to expand into a Default Expanded View Preference (i.e. with default visible fields) that was specified during the creation of this contact/record (i.e. every time I add a new record to the Contact Table, I can select what type of record it is [“Client” vs "Supplier]; in turn, instructing AirTable on which fields are relevant to that record). The result, in the above example of expanded linked records — our entire sales team will always see this expanded linked record as a “Client”-specific record, per the records’ system-wide default expanded view setting.

DEFAULT VIEW & CUSTOM VIEW PREFERENCE
But then (hear me out!), once any given record is expanded, I’d like the option to specify, from a dropdown within that expanded record view, how I’d personally prefer to view that contact/record going forward. For example, the Default View for a given Contact record could’ve been set to “Client” when it was created; but, depending on my department and the info I typically need, I can now select an alternate ‘view preference’ from the expanded record drop-down (ex. maybe I choose “Client Finance Data” or “Client Holiday Gift Info”). Once I’ve selected a new expanded ‘view preference’, AirTable would remember this selection as my new personal default for that specific contact/record. The result — anytime the record is expanded by ME, I’ll only see the info that’s relevant to my work. If I need additional info/fields in the future, I can always change my “view preference” with the dropdown.

Again, I think this feature would help to calm people’s consistent request to link bases. I do believe all data can be kept in 1 base, and I’d prefer it that way; but we need more features to help us hide things that we don’t want to see.

[Ryan_Roberts]

I would love to se this as well, having the same problems here.

[Michael_Van_Sta]

Setting what a view should default too would be really impactful - i’m struggling not having having this to tout to executive team.

Can’t ask them to open a high level summary and then collapse all of our quarterly views.

[Kathy_Benson]

I would like to expand on this feature request. I’d like the ability to customize the appearance of an expanded view. I have tables with a lot of columns and I use expanded view a lot of times rather than scrolling wide right and left. I love that a default layout is available with all columns shown and the ability to unhide columns in the expanded view as well. On the other hand, this functionality can be overwhelming to the casual user. What I propose is that any view can have its own expanded view settings.

1. I would create a grid view of the main table for casual users with the expanded view having certain fields which I select. I’m fine with the customization being specified in a view, so that it is easy to identify the order of fields, and which ones to hide/show.

2. I would have a different grid view and l let that use the default expanded view setup.

3. For my gallery view of the table, I’d customize the expanded view to show only pertinent columns.

My approach would provide more functionality than @ryan_roberts proposes but it provides a broad generic solution.

[Zach_Mortensen]

This would be a HUGE help to be able to pick the viewable fields in an expanded, related table.

[Tristan_Scifo]

Does anyone know if this has been solved in some way? I have a sense this can be done now, but it’s not clear to me how.

[tiolan]

I would love to se this as well, having the same problems here.