Notes field with individual entries (date stamped, filterable, searchable)

[Steven_Hambleto]

Hi there,

I use Airtable as a CRM and as such, I have to write notes in the sidebar (datestamped but non-searchable and can’t be pulled into another cell) or in a Long Text field (no formatting, no timestamps)

What I’d like to be able to do is two things -

1. Create individual notes entries, date stamped, editable (including the date and time entered), filterable (user, order etc) and searchable.
2. Ability to pull in notes from all related fields into a single notes field (for example collect all notes from contacts that work at the same company).

[Barnaby_Bracham]

Hello Steven,

Why not just create a “Notes” table with a timestamp, long text and contributor field, and create a multiple-entry link between your two tables ?

Seems like this would solve your needs.

[Steven_Hambleto]

Then I’d have to name each entry which is more thinking. I just want to assign a note under a contact.

[Matt_Bush]

Starting with Barnaby’s idea of a “Notes” table:

You can use a Long Text field as the primary field of the “Notes” table. That way, you put the notes directly into the primary field, rather than having a separate primary field for a name. It’s worth nothing that, while tables work best when record names are unique, Airtable doesn’t require names to be unique.

[Tuur]

Almost feels quick and dirty…

[Steven_Hambleto]

But that’s another table and another field that needs to be hidden in either the company, deals, contacts or tasks tables I have. Plus I want to be able to write the notes directly to the record, not create a record then associate it (have to find it first).

By having it associated with the record directly, I only have to create one relationship then it pulls in all data from it including the notes.

[Steven_Hambleto]

I wouldn’t mind creating a separate table but for the need to name each and every entry.

I’m currently using the comments sidebar but this isn’t searchable or filterable and you can’t collate the notes into a related table (contacts -> company).

[Tuur]

The separate table could have only one field. No need for a key.

[Steven_Hambleto]

Now how would you collate all the notes related to all contacts related to a company

So imagine Company_1 has multiple contacts related to it (Contacts table) -
Contact_1|Contact_2|Contact_3

Each contact has multiple notes related to it (Notes table)
Contact_1 - Notes_1|Notes_3|Notes_5
Contact_2 - Notes_2|Notes_4
Contact_3 - Notes_6

What I want is to look at a Company_1 and see in chronological order -

Notes_1|Notes_2|Notes_3|Notes_4|Notes_5|Notes_6

[Tuur]

Ah. Yes, for that you would need at least a ‘Contact’ field next to the note.

You could lookup the company for the contact and create a note view grouped by the company.

Right now there’s no default way / function to group it all together in one ‘Long text’ field for example.

[Steven_Hambleto]

In the company field, I can lookup notes related to a contact (also related) but there is zero formatting, it doesn’t recognise line breaks for example.

Now that would be useful!