Sometimes, colors can speak louder than words. We know that a green traffic light, for instance, gives us the go-ahead, while a red light means “stop.”
And in Airtable, you can apply all sorts of colors to your records. Below are some ways you can use color-coding to highlight key information and orient team members.
Color records by single select fields
One of the simplest ways you can differentiate records is by coloring them by single select fields. Above, the records in this calendar view have been colored according to the “Status” field, so you can see progress toward upcoming deadlines.
You can now instantly see which pieces of content are in drafting (red), which are undergoing revisions (yellow), and which are ready to publish (green)–all without having to double-click into each individual record to hunt for this information.
Add conditional coloring
Workflows are complex, often requiring multiple considerations. If you want records colored by more than one condition, you’ll want to use conditional formatting.
Let’s say you want to flag content that is running behind schedule. Here, multiple conditions have been set to color records red when:
- The content’s due date is in the next 7 days
AND
- The status is not yet “in review”
There’s a third condition that colors everything else yellow, so your attention is only focused on the content that’s at risk (where a deadline is coming up and the content hasn’t been reviewed yet). Try using conditional coloring to red-flag overdue records, or neutralize the tasks you’ve already completed with a simple gray.
Add color everywhere
Your colleagues aren’t only getting their information from views. Consider applying the same color conditions you set in a view to your apps dashboard, so your data is streamlined throughout your base.
Here, record colors have been linked from a view to the Matrix app. So no matter where team members go in a base, they can receive the same, up-to-date information.
Try coloring your records in Airtable now.
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