Records & the peek drawer

Every row in a table is a record, and there are two ways to open one: a quick peek drawer that slides in beside your view, and a full record page for editing and linking. This article covers reading, editing, linking, starring, and deleting records. Open a record In Board and Gallery views, click a card and a peek drawer slides in from the right — a fast, read-friendly summary that keeps your view underneath. In the grid, clicking a cell selects that cell instead, so peek another way: press Space with any cell of the row selected, click the expand arrow that appears on the selected row's name cell, or click a spot on the row outside the data cells, like the row number. For the full page, click Show full record at the top of the drawer — that's where attachments, subitems, one-off links and generated documents live. To leave the drawer, click the dimmed background or the × button; Esc also closes it once you're on the first sheet. Anything you were part-way through typing is saved on the way out. Read a record in the peek drawer The drawer opens on its Fields tab: the record's name, its table, and every field value rendered exactly as the grid shows it — progress bars for percents, stars for ratings, chips for selects. Fields that are hidden from you by field permissions are left out entirely. The drawer isn't just for reading. Click any value — or the record's name — and it becomes an editor right there: a date picker for dates, a Yes/No choice for Boolean fields, the option list for selects, and the link picker for relations. Each change saves the moment you leave the field, so there's no save button. Esc cancels the field you're editing without closing the drawer. Lookup, rollup and auto-number values stay read-only because they're computed, and attachments, subitems, one-off links and generated documents are handled on the full record page. Below the fields, Records that use this lists up to a dozen records that link to this one, grouped the same way the full page groups them. Hop between linked records Relation values in the drawer are clickable chips. Click one — or any card under Records that use this — and a new sheet lands on top of the current one like a sheet of paper, so you can wander through your data without losing your place. The sheet you came from stays full width underneath with a sliver of its edge showing down the left; click that sliver to go straight back to it. A breadcrumb trail across the top shows the path you took. Click ← Back or press Esc to step back one sheet, or click any name in the trail to jump several at once. An edit you were part-way through on a sheet underneath is kept, not thrown away, and clicking the dimmed background closes the whole stack. Check activity and the graph The drawer's Activity tab shows a light history of the record: when it was created, when it was last updated, and links made to other records, each with a timestamp. The Graph tab draws a small map — this record in the center, up to eight connected records around it. Click any of the surrounding nodes to peek that record. Edit a record on its page The full page's Fields card opens with the record's name — that's the table's first field, shown under its own label — then an input for every other field, matched to its type: date pickers for dates, a Yes/No choice for Boolean fields, dropdowns for selects. Nothing is written until you press Save changes; the grid, by contrast, saves each cell as you go. Lookup and rollup fields show computed values you can't type into — they're derived from linked records. Hover the small lookup, rollup, or relation badge next to a field name for a plain-English reminder of what it does. Link records together A relation field shows its current links as chips. Press + Link a record — + Link another once there is one, or Change on a field that takes just one — and a picker opens that searches the whole related table rather than a slice of it: type to narrow, scroll for more, and the footer says how many matches you haven't seen. Remove a link with the × on its chip. If the record you want doesn't exist yet, type its name and choose Create “…” to make it and link it in one step. The same picker appears everywhere you link a record — the grid, this page, the new-record form, a subitem row and the peek drawer — and it honours the field's How many can be linked? setting: Several accumulates, Just one replaces. On this page the links are written when you press Save changes; in the grid and the drawer they save straight away. The Records that use this panel shows every record that links to this one — through a relation field or a one-off link — grouped by table with counts; click any chip to open that record. For a connection that doesn't fit any relation field, use Add a one-off link: pick a Target record, give the link a Key and an optional Label, and press Add link. One-off links appear under Manual links, where the × button removes one. A one-off link can't reuse a key that belongs to a relation field on this table — you'll get a message telling you to edit that field instead. This protects the link from being wiped the next time the record saves. Star a record In the peek drawer, click ☆ Star — it flips to ★ Starred and the record joins the ⭐ Starred section of the sidebar, where up to six starred items show (starred tables listed first). Click the button again to unstar. Stars are personal and saved in your browser, so your starred list is yours alone — it won't appear for teammates, and it won't follow you to a different device or browser. Delete records — they go to the Trash In the grid, tick the checkboxes at the left edge of the rows you want gone. A bar appears showing how many are selected; click Delete and confirm. The records move to the Trash rather than being destroyed. On the Trash page, Restore brings a record back with its relations intact, Delete forever removes it permanently, and Empty trash purges everything you're allowed to delete. The Auto-purge column counts down a 30-day recovery window for each item, turning red in the final week — restore anything you want to keep before its time runs out. Tips • Press <kbd>Space</kbd> on a selected cell to peek the record without leaving the grid. • Click a name in the peek drawer's breadcrumb trail to jump back several records at once. • Hover the lookup, rollup, and relation badges on the record page for a one-line explanation of each computed field. • Use the Graph tab to see a record's connections at a glance — click any surrounding node to peek it. • Star the records you open daily; they wait in the sidebar under ⭐ Starred. Good to know • Stars live in your browser, not your account — they won't sync to another device or show for teammates. • Lookup, rollup and auto-number values can't be changed in the peek drawer — they're computed. Attachments, subitems, one-off links and generated documents live on the full record page. Everything else, relations included, is editable in the drawer. • On the full record page nothing is saved until you press Save changes — closing the tab loses your edits. The grid and the peek drawer save each field immediately. • Pressing Delete on a selected grid cell clears that cell's value; it does not delete the record. Use the row checkboxes and the Delete button to send records to the Trash. • Removing every chip from a relation field clears all of its links — that's the intended way to unlink, not a glitch. In the grid and the drawer it saves as soon as the picker closes; on the record page it takes effect when you press Save changes. • Delete forever and Empty trash are permanent, with no undo — and Empty trash only purges records from tables you have delete access to. Who can do what • Viewers can open records, the peek drawer, and the full record page, but their saves are refused — editing needs edit access on the table. • Contributors can create records but cannot edit or delete existing ones, unless a per-table override grants more. • Admins and Editors can edit and delete records by default; per-table overrides (Full access, Read & create, Read only, No access (hidden)) can widen or narrow this for anyone. • Fields marked Hidden for you are stripped on the server before the peek drawer loads, so they never appear there; Read-only fields refuse edits. • Removing a one-off link needs edit access on the record's table; deleting records, restoring from the Trash, and Delete forever all need delete access.