I use Airtable for project management. One category I use for every task is Priority, which is a single-select field. I begin typing in the field I want, e.g., “nex” for “Next Week,” hit enter, and it adds it automatically. (In case you’re curious, I keep my hands on the keyboard as much as possible, so using a mouse or trackpad is a waste of time.)
Unfortunately quite often Airtable does not recognize my shorthand and instead creates a brand new single-select field (in the case above “nex”), which I do not want. This happens multiple times during my weekly review. Every. Single. Monday. It requires me to click customize field type, delete the erroneous new entry, and confirm that I really don’t want it. It’s frustrating because it is ridiculous.
My suggestion: allow users to disable custom entry. That way, when I begin typing in the field, it can select only my predetermined ones. And if for some reason it doesn’t recognize “nex” as short for “Next Week,” an error message can let me know and ask me to select from the dropdown.
Thanks for your consideration. I love Airtable, and this is easily my biggest frustration with the program.
