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Overview

Fields are metadata that help you consistently structure and visualize project data - like spreadsheet headers. They live on your Dovetail data and project Docs to help build on the sort and filter experience across your workspace. Managers and Contributors can use data fields to capture information like research method, interview date, usability testing scores, segment, and Net Promoter Score. With Doc fields, you can capture information such as product area, team, key themes, confidence level, and the criticality of your findings. This page covers fields inside a single project. To create global fields that apply across every project, see Workspace fields.

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How data fields work

When you add a new field to a data object, it will also be added to all other data objects in that project. This will allow you to capture information consistently across your data and easily filter, sort, and locate your data. Fields are located within the data sidebar and can be opened by pressing the field icon.
  • To add a new field, click + New field, set a title, and select a field type from the dropdown list.
  • When a data object is editable, you can update field titles or values by simply clicking on the field itself.
  • To rearrange the order of your fields, you can use drag and drop in the sidebar.

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How Doc fields work

Workspace-level docs do not currently support fields. If you need to add fields to a doc, please move the doc into a project.
When you add a new field to a Doc, it will also be added to all other Docs in that project. This will allow you to capture information consistently across your data and easily filter, sort, and locate your data.
  • To add a field to your Doc, open a Doc and click + New field. Then, you can set a title and select a field type.

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Field types

We currently support the following field types in data and **Docs **(only at the project-level):

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Working with single and multi-select fields

Select fields help standardize how data is categorized by limiting field values to a curated list to select from. Single-select fields are limited to displaying one value from the list, while multi-select fields allow up to 100 values for a given data or Doc. When creating a single or multi-select field, you can create a list of values for your data or Docs to use along with this.
  • To do this, open your data or Docs, click Fields, and select + New Field.
  • From there, select the field type (single or multi), add a field title, and enter values in the text box. All values submitted in the text box of a field will automatically populate and save a list of values for you to use in the field.

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Create and update field data in bulk

You can update many fields quickly by editing field properties in bulk from any data or Docs view.
  • To do this, select your data or Doc, click ••• in the pop-up menu, and select Edit field.
  • From there, choose the field you wish to edit along with the field property. Once complete, this will apply updates to all data objects or Docs selected.

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Change field type for existing field

You may decide to change the type of an existing field, such as a text field to a single or multi-select field.
  • To do this in your data object or Doc, click on the field title, hover over the field type, and select the new field type.
When converting to a select field (single or multi), all existing text is treated as a list of values. For multi-select, commas create separate values in the list. Remember that single and multi-select fields have a maximum number of values allowed per field. When converting a multi-select field to a text field, the options for each multi-select field will be converted to a comma-separated list, and select fields will be converted straight to text. This will not result in any data loss.

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Edit, delete, and manage project fields

Project fields are scoped to a single project — any changes you make apply across all data or Docs within that project instantly.

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Edit a project-level field

To edit a field title or type, open a data object or Doc and click on the field title in the sidebar. From there, you can rename it or hover over the field type to switch it to a new type. To update field values in bulk, select your data or Docs, click ••• in the pop-up menu, and select Edit field. Choose the field and property you want to update — changes will apply to all selected items at once.

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Delete a project-level field

To delete a project field, navigate to the data sidebar, open the field, and select Delete. Deleting a field removes it and its values from all data objects or Docs in the project.
Note: Deletion is permanent at the project level. If you’re working with workspace fields, deleted fields are sent to the workspace trash and can be restored within 30 days.

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Manage project-level fields

To add or update select field values, open the field directly from a data object or Doc and edit the values inline.

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Workspace fields

Fields created inside a project stay in that project. To define a set of fields once and reuse them across every project — so data can be grouped, searched, and filtered workspace-wide — see Workspace fields.