One of the core features of views is the ability to hide specified fields (columns, in grid views). When a field is hidden, it is not deleted and none of the values in that field are affected—it's just hidden from the particular view you're using to look at your table.
Try hiding fields when:
- You're trying to tidy up your view and only show necessary fields.
- You have computed fields or complex formula fields that don't need to be immediately accessible by editors and creators.
- You need to prevent people from seeing certain fields in a view share link.
Pro and Enterprise plan users who want to take extra precautions to ensure that the field visibility in the views used for their view share links or embedded views won't get accidentally changed can lock views, which will prevent all collaborators from altering a view's configuration until it's been unlocked by someone with creator permissions.
Hiding fields in expanded records
Hiding fields in calendar view
Hiding fields (customizing cards) in kanban view
Hiding fields (customizing cards) in gallery view
Hidden fields in view share links
Copying the configuration of hidden fields from one view to another
Hiding fields in grid view
To hide fields in your view (or show hidden fields), click the Hide fields button in the view bar to bring up the hide fields dialog. If no fields in the current view are hidden, the hide fields button will resemble an eye with a line through it and say "Hide fields."
If there are any hidden fields in the current view, the hide fields button will have a blue-shaded background and (if the window is wide enough) will say the specific number of fields that are hidden, e.g. "12 hidden fields."
When the hide fields dialog is open, you can see which fields are showing (where the toggle is green and switched to the right) and which fields are hidden (where the toggle is grayed out and switched to the left).
To show or hide a field, click the toggle next to the name of that field.
The Hide all and Show all buttons will let you quickly hide/show all fields (except the primary field, which cannot be hidden).
By clicking and dragging the drag handles on the field names, you can quickly rearrange the order of the fields in your view.
If you have a large number of fields, you can type a search term in the Find a field search box to more easily find the field you're looking for.
Another way to hide a field is by clicking on the field header, then selecting the Hide field option from the dropdown menu.
You can also hide or show individual fields from a grid view by opening up an expanded record.
Hiding fields in expanded records
In any view where you can expand records (grid, calendar, kanban, gallery), you can choose to hide or show fields from within the expanded record.
If you expand a record while in a view with hidden fields, the expanded record will show a button at the bottom of the record displaying the number of hidden fields. You can click this button to expand or collapse all the fields that are hidden in this view.
If the hidden fields have been expanded in the expanded record, they'll display with a hidden field icon that indicates that this field is hidden in the view.
To hide a field from within an expanded record, click on the dropdown arrow next to the name of the field you'd like to hide, then click on the Hide field option in the dropdown menu.
To show a field from within an expanded record, click on the dropdown arrow next to the name of the field you'd like to show, then click on the Unhide field option in the dropdown menu.
Showing and hiding fields while in an expanded record will affect which fields are shown/hidden in the view.
Note that which fields are shown/hidden in the expanded record has implications for which fields are visible in view share links—by default, the fields that are hidden in expanded records will not be visible in expanded records in view share links, but this can be changed in the view share link settings.
Hiding fields in calendar view
The only way that you can hide fields in calendar view is by expanding a record (any record will do) and toggling field visibility from within the expanded record.
Which fields are hidden/shown in calendar view does not have an effect on how record cards appear in calendar view; instead, hiding fields in a calendar view determines which fields are visible in expanded records for calendar view share links.
Hiding fields (customizing cards) in kanban view
Unlike grid view, kanban view does not have a Hide fields button; instead, it has a Customize cards button. The Customize cards button lets you determine what fields are visible on your kanban view's cards.
When the Customize cards menu is open, you can see which fields are showing (where the toggle is green and switched to the right) and which fields are hidden (where the toggle is grayed out and switched to the left). Note that in kanban view, empty values are not displayed on the cards.
To hide or show a field on the kanban cards, click the toggle next to the name of the field you want to hide or show.
The Hide all and Show all buttons will let you quickly hide/show all fields (except the primary field, which cannot be hidden).
By clicking and dragging the drag handles on the field names, you can quickly rearrange the order of the fields on the cards.
If you have a large number of fields, you can type a search term in the Find a field search box to more easily find the field you're looking for.
You can also hide or show individual fields from the cards in your kanban view by clicking on a card to open up an expanded record.
Hiding fields (customizing cards) in gallery view
Unlike grid view, gallery view does not have a Hide fields button; instead, it has a Customize cards button. The Customize cards button lets you determine what fields are visible on your gallery view's cards.
When the Customize cards menu is open, you can see which fields are showing (where the toggle is green and switched to the right) and which fields are hidden (where the toggle is grayed out and switched to the left).
To hide or show a field on the kanban cards, click the toggle next to the name of the field you want to hide or show.
The Hide all and Show all buttons will let you quickly hide/show all fields (except the primary field, which cannot be hidden).
By clicking and dragging the drag handles on the field names, you can quickly rearrange the order of the fields on the cards.
If you have a large number of fields, you can type a search term in the Find a field search box to more easily find the field you're looking for.
You can also hide or show individual fields from the cards in your gallery view by clicking on a card to open up an expanded record.
Hidden fields in view share links
By default, view share links will not show hidden fields in the view that is being shared, even if you expand a record in the view share link. However, please be aware that there are some exceptions to this:
- In a grouped grid view, the field that is being used to group the records will always be visible.
- In a calendar view, the date field(s) that the view uses to display records will always be visible.
- In a gallery or kanban view, whichever attachment field has been designated as the cover field will always be visible.
- In a kanban view, the field that is being used to stack the records will always be visible.
Also note that if you change what fields are visible in the view in Airtable, the view share link will automatically update in real time to show the most up-to-date version of the view.
Additionally, when configuring your view share links, you have the option to show all fields in expanded records. This means that even if you have certain fields hidden in the view, all fields will be made visible when records are expanded in the view share link.
Copying the configuration of hidden fields from one view to another
You can copy the configuration of hidden/shown fields from one view to another by using the copy view configuration feature.
As fields can be hidden/shown in every view type, field visibility can be be copied from any view type to any other view type.