In Blog, Security, Tips & Tricks, Training & Certification

I love the inline editing feature with list views. Yet, it seems to be a feature that many admins forget about and even more users don’t use.

Last week, I showed one of my sales users who she can make quick edits of her contacts and do mass updates using a list view. She was astounded. It surprised me enough I sent the following tweet.

It was suggested this become a blog post. So here we are. Let’s take a look at the requirements for inline editing and why it is awesome

Why it is awesome

Sometimes Administrators can forget what it’s like to be an end user. Yes it can be quick to simply edit a record, but end users may have to edit many records across many accounts. The idea of searching, clicking, Edit, save and repeat makes updating a chore – and so they put off the data changes.

With the inline editing capabilities, users can view a list of records and quickly make edits to records. So it’s awesome:

  • Users can quickly go and modify records on a single page
  • User can quickly make the SAME change to MULTIPLE records
  • Easy to use tool that encourages user adoption and cleaner data

Who doesn’t want that?

Inline editing is very easy. Simply hover your mouse over a value in a column. A pencil will indicate this field can be modified. Users can just double click and edit away!inline edit

When changing multiple records to have the same value for a field, they can check the boxes to the left of the record, modify 1 value and select to make the change to all selected records.

Edit multiple records

Requirements

There are some requirements to use inline editing with list views.

  • Two features need to be enabled under the User Interface settings: Enable Inline Editing, and Enable Enhanced Lists
    • These are all under the Setup, Customize and then User Interface.
  • When you create a list view on an object using Record Types, the list view MUST be filtered to only 1 record type.
    • This seems frustrating but it’s for an important reason. List view inline editing respects validation rules and field dependencies. Since the values of picklists can be different across record types the system restricts you to viewing 1 record type only when using inline editing.
  • Certain fields are not allowed for inline editing. For example, Opportunity Stage or a field that’s a lookup and part of the list view filter
  • Filter Logic, for example: (1 and 2 and (3 or 4) are not allowed when using inline editing
  • Inline editing is not available for users using accessibility mode
  • User must have the object and record (sharing) permissions to be able to view and edit the record.

 

 

Recommended Posts
Showing 11 comments
  • lessonsinforce
    Reply

    Great blog post! Short, concise, easy to follow! Loved it! Thank you!!

    Jackie Travieso Independent Contractor

    Skype: jackie.travieso cell/texting: 941-545-4637 i.consult.sfdc@gmail.com

  • David Berman
    Reply

    Hello Brian,

    Thanks for the post. I love this feature as an administrator. Say I have to add new workflow rules and have them run against existing records, this feature comes in very handy – add some dummy checkbox, make a mass update to the checkbox and one of the fields referenced in the workflow rule, then mass update the selected records’ target field (referenced by target field) back to the ‘triggerable’ original value, and this causes the workflow to fire.

    Life saver…

    • Salesforce Wizard
      Reply

      That’s a great Admin use case David. Thanks for sharing it!

      Of course, you’re doing this workflow testing in a sandbox… right? 🙂

      • David Berman
        Reply

        Sandbox shmandbox…

  • succellerator
    Reply

    Reblogged this on Succellerator.SaaS and commented:
    Funny how powerful tools are often right under one’s nose.
    Salesforce InLine List Editing

  • Christine Ienna
    Reply

    What a great “forgotten” time saver! Thanks Brian!

    • Salesforce Wizard
      Reply

      You’re welcome! Now if only it will work with all the fields and handle field dependencies 🙂

  • E Dunlap
    Reply

    Help! My company does not use Record Type. I cannot select this as a filter. What is the workaround for this?

    • Brian Kwong
      Reply

      If there are no custom record types for an object then the default “master” record type is involved. In these circumstances, you do not need to specify a record type in the listview.

pingbacks / trackbacks

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.