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Customize Standard Fields

Customize Standard Fields

You can customize several aspects of standard fields, such as the values in picklists, the format for auto-number fields, tracking field history, lookup filters on relationship fields, and field-level help.

Required Editions

Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience
Available in: All Editions except for Database.com.
User Permissions Needed
To change standard fields: Customize Application
Tip
Tip You can’t delete standard fields, but you can remove them from your page layouts.
  1. Navigate to the fields page for your object.
  2. Click the field label.
  3. To add custom help text, click Edit.
  4. On the field’s information page, you can—depending on your edition—set field-level security, view accessibility settings, and configure validation rules.

You can also do more, depending on the field’s type. For example, if the field is a picklist, you can add, delete, and reorder its values, and set dependencies. You can’t increase the field length of a standard field. If you need a longer text area, consider creating a custom field.

Note
Note What does that Indexed checkbox mean on a field, and how did it get there?

If a field is indexed, you can use sidebar search or advanced search to find values in the field. Having a field indexed can also speed up other operations on the field, such as reporting. See this blog post to find out more: Know Thy Salesforce Field Indexes for Fast Reports, List Views, and SOQL.

  • Capturing Gender-Related Data with Standard Fields
    Represent the diversity of your customer base by recording gender-related data in Salesforce. Use standard, optional fields with vetted value sets to help you personalize your data, build trust, and close data gaps in your system of record.
 
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