Double Click on Field Name - Restore Customize Field Functionality!

[Paul_Warren1]

Hello Airtable, Please, please please reverse this change!

Double-clicking on the field name now only modifies the name of the field. It is a pain to have to right-click to access this menu. I don’t want to be overdramatic and claim this will totally ruin Airtable, but it’s much less efficient than the old method.

I also noticed that when creating a new field, the field type is now the first dialog. Then we are prompted to put in a name. This is fine and I can get used to the new workflow. I understand that this reduces the number of times I use “Tab” to move between dialog boxes.

I love Airtable and hope it continues to make progress! Just not the progress I don’t like :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

[ScottWorld]

Justin_Barrett:

It just feels like you’re trying to find as many flaws as possible. I’d rather focus on what it can do, not what it can’t do.

Hi guys,

Sorry if I came across as negative above (or in other threads where I’ve launched criticisms about Airtable). That is not my intention. I love Airtable, and I love everything that Airtable can do. Some might say that I’m even TOO obsessed with everything Airtable can do, since Airtable now dominates my conversations & thoughts everyday. Lol. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

My intention is to simply continue helping to improve the product by compiling all the top requests & desires & “pain points” & “lingering issues” into one easy-to-digest list for the Airtable team to look through.

To me, compiling “wishlists” like this is an important part of software development — whether it’s an Airtable client coming to me with what they want improved in their own custom base, or whether it’s us going to Airtable with what we want improved in their software.

kuovonne:

I don’t expect Airtable to implement new feature request simply because people request them in this forum.

I was previously under the impression that everything we post in this topic is read by them. However, if they’re not reading their customers’ desires in the #show-and-tell:product-suggestions forum, then it’s actually important that I send the wishlist to support@airtable.com as well, which is something that I hadn’t thought of previously.

My previous experience with FileMaker has taught me a lot about what I have now come to expect as excellent communication between a software company and its consultants/developers. One “small part” of the reason that FileMaker is such an amazing & complete tool today is because they systemically & regularly & relentlessly met (in person!) with their developers like myself multiple times per year to relentlessly ask us how the product can be improved. They also held focus groups with us throughout the year to ask us about bugs, problems, needs, wants, desires, etc. Sometimes it was almost TOO much communication! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Lol.

But it helped refine their product in amazing ways. I even still have the 100+ page bound book that we (a group of 10 developers) delivered to them called “Top 500 Issues with FileMaker”, where we described all of our top needs, pain points, wishlist items, problems, bugs, in detail. I went back a few years ago and looked through the book… they’ve now addressed about 495 of the things in that book. :slightly_smiling_face:

Anyways, my only interest is helping to make Airtable better & better for all of us. :slightly_smiling_face: (And with Google and Microsoft running at our heels, I’m more concerned than ever with keeping ahead of the pack.)

[Bill_French]

ScottWorld:

Top 500 Issues with FileMaker

Only 500? :winking_face: …

[ScottWorld]

Bill.French:

Only 500? :winking_face: …

Lol!! I know, right?!! :joy:

[Justin_Barrett]

ScottWorld:

I was previously under the impression that everything we post in this topic is read by them. However, if they’re not reading their customers’ desires in the #show-and-tell:product-suggestions forum, then it’s actually important that I send the wishlist to support@airtable.com as well, which is something that I hadn’t thought of previously.

What makes you think that they aren’t reading these threads? Don’t equate not replying with not reading, or worse yet (as some posts by others seem to imply) not caring. Even though they don’t comment on threads in this topic much these days, my gut says that they’re still being read and logged for review.

This ties back to what I said earlier: we can’t accurately judge based on what we see—or don’t see—in this forum. Before sending off any list to the Airtable devs, I suggest opening a discussion with them. They may not be willing to talk details about which items are or aren’t on their development list, but I’d like to think that they would let you know how closely they track threads here. My gut says that they’ve already got a base where they collect and organize features & fixes, sparked in part by threads in this forum. If that’s the case, then perhaps whittle down your list to only those items that don’t have threads, and ask if they would mind receiving that list. I just feel that opening with “Would you mind if I ask a question?” would be received better than, “Here’s a list of things that are wrong with Airtable,” even if that list is compiled with the best of intentions. I’m reminded of one of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

[ScottWorld]

Yes, I forgot to mention a very important thing. I already spoke with @Taylor_Savage about this, and he told me that this list would be incredibly helpful to the team.

[M_k]

Hi @ScottWorld

I am looking forward to your list. I think it’s really important and I am grateful that you are doing this.

Although, I think that sending this list to Airtable support is a good idea, too. According to @kuovonne, it seems that this forum is more geared to members getting and receiving help.

One would think that Airtable would look at the Request category, but perhaps not or if so, it might not be such a priority for them. Which is too bad, since it’s the users that pay their bills, in the end.

I, too am very passionate about Airtable, and this last change regarding “Customize fields“ option, makes no sense, especially removing the ability to customize fields on a mobile device, which I use with Airtable, 99% of the time. I am sure I am not the only one who uses a mobile device. There are 100,000’a people using these devices.

I think that I am going to send them an email about this.

You got me on a roll here! :grinning:

Mary

[Kamille_Parks]

2020 has been a month-to-month litany of absolutely-no-warning product updates. I said before that none of us knows what’s going on until after a decision has been made, which if I were to hazard a guess, is the real source of frustration about this and other changes. People begged for bold text for ages, and no one knew they were even considering that feature until they released a beta for rich long text fields.

For me its less a problem that “Airtable hasn’t added x,y, z yet”, its “Airtable won’t give any indication if they would even consider x or y or z”. This is why I like ClickUp’s use of canny.io to give users simple feedback on “we’re considering it/ we’re working on it/we’ve released it” in addition to a community support forums for “how do i …?” questions instead of product suggestions/bugs (link below).

feedback.clickup.com

ClickUp Feedback

Give feedback to the ClickUp team so they can make more informed product decisions. Powered by Canny.

Conversely, had people gotten a little popup that said “We’re testing out a new workflow for editing field name/type, click here to opt-in” (or “Please use this new workflow for a week and give us your feedback”) then I do believe people would be less upset about it in the first place.

I am in the unique position that I specifically told Airtable to sign me up for literally every beta and not to bother with asking, but most people don’t want that.

[Kamille_Parks]

Just noticed something about the new process for creating a new field by setting its config options first, then the name:

It ensures the field isn’t created until its basically done. I very much like this change. Before, the field was made immediately with the name “Field #” and is updated when you click done, meaning if you have an automated process that looks for updated base schema or record options, it may fire twice when creating a field. The new process might be more efficient.

I still stand by my assertion that field name and config options make sense to be contained in the same dialog.

[Justin_Barrett]

Kamille_Parks:

Conversely, had people gotten a little popup that said “We’re testing out a new workflow for editing field name/type, click here to opt-in” (or “Please use this new workflow for a week and give us your feedback”) then I do believe people would be less upset about it in the first place.

AMEN! I wouldn’t mind opting in to a lot of things, as long as I could opt out as needed. Gmail’s settings panel has an option to enable “experimental” features, which adds a whole new section where you can activate/deactivate lots of beta features at will.

Something like that in Airtable would be very welcome!

[kuovonne]

M_k:

it seems that this forum is more geared to members getting and receiving help.

Yup, per the official guidelines for this community:

We would like to emphasize that this is a community forum, and it is primarily designed for users to have conversations with each other—not for users to contact the staff. While Airtable employees post on the forums relatively frequently (these users have “Airtable” after their username and a special badge that says “Airtable Employee” on their user profiles), they will not respond to every post, and you should not expect that your post will necessarily receive a response from an Airtable employee.

If you would like to get in contact with Airtable’s staff, or if you are having an urgent issue with an Airtable base, we suggest that you use the in-app support or that you email us at support@airtable.com.