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Show a second line under a record's name

Goal​

Choose the field that appears as a smaller second line under a record's name wherever the platform lists records without a grid — most visibly in a lookup — so two contacts called "J. Smith" can be told apart.

Prerequisites​

  • You are signed in as a maker with permission to edit the table's solution.
  • You have a table open in the Table Designer, with the field you want to show.

Steps​

  1. Open the table whose records get picked (the table a lookup field points at), and go to Fields.
  2. Select the row of the field that tells its records apart — a contact's email, an account's city, an order's reference.
  3. Select Use as secondary text in the command bar.
  4. The field's row now reads (Secondary text) beside its name, so it is clear which field a table uses without opening anything else.
  5. To stop using it, select the same field and choose Stop using as secondary text. The field and its values stay; only the nomination goes.

What happens behind the scenes​

A table has at most one secondary text, in the same way it has at most one record image. Which field disambiguates a table's records is a judgement only you can make, so you make it once here instead of every control guessing it from whichever columns a view happened to include.

It is part of the table's definition, so it travels in a solution: export the table and the second line appears in the same places in the target environment.

A lookup then has two shapes, and the metadata decides which:

  • With a Lookup view — you have said which columns are how someone picks a record of this table, so the picker also offers Advanced lookup: the whole table as a grid, with paging.
  • Without one — the picker is the list itself: each record's picture, its name, and this second line underneath. There is no "show me the grid" link, because there is no set of columns anyone chose for it.

The name is always shown; the second line and the picture are shown when the table nominates them. A record whose secondary field is empty simply shows one line rather than a blank second one.

Troubleshooting​

  • The "Use as secondary text" action is not shown. — the selected field is the table's primary field (already the first line), or a File/Image column, which holds a reference rather than text a person reads.
  • The second line is empty for some records. — those records have no value in that field. The row shows one line rather than a blank second one, which is the intended behaviour; fill the field in, or nominate one that is usually filled.
  • A lookup shows other detail instead. — the table nominates no secondary text, so the panel falls back to the columns of whichever view it resolved. Nominate a field to take over that line.
  • The second line disappeared after deleting a field. — deleting the nominated field clears the nomination with it, so the table is never left pointing at a field that is gone. Nominate another.