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Customizable field level help (was: Field setup Description on user screens)

It would be very nice to have the field descriptions from the field setup to be visible on the user input screens. The benefits are obvious; field descriptions, process instructions, help content etc....It seems such a waste to have all this information not be available to end users. Adding a tick box that allows the description to be displayed on the users screens would also be beneficial.

Ali_J_in_NH 10/14/06	Cool . . but if implemented should be an option set on each field.
ErikM 10/14/06	Great idea, but this would have to be localized, so that I can provide adequate test to my spanish, german and italian users.
Pramod 10/16/06	Agreed to above comments .. Should be able to do it at each field.
EricB 10/16/06	I changed the title of this post from "Field setup Description on user screens". The concept of field-level help is something we are evaluating on the platform roadmap, but the direction we are heading is to add a separate field attribute called "Help" rather than re-using the Description attribute. Many customers use the description for internal documentation purposes. How does that sound?
AMartin 10/16/06	Hi Eric, Having separate Help and Description fields seems like a good idea. But will we be able to use multiple languages? I guess if you are only evaluating this idea, it won't be arriving anytime soon.
EricB 10/16/06	Yes, the idea is to make help text translatable via translation workbench. I'm not sure on when this feature will be available. I suppose it depends on how many votes it gets on IdeaExchange!
jsherman 10/16/06	Using a separate Help field, rather than Description, will enable us to support multiple languages. Multi-language support is an absolute requirement for this feature. Field-level Help is on the roadmap--we just showed a prototype at Dreamforce. But there's no specific date of availability yet. One question: Would you like to see this feature toggleable on and off per user?
NBensen 10/16/06	Love this idea as my users ask for this type of help frequently.
PerGeert 10/16/06	To us the multi-language support mentioned by ErikM is vital. Maybe you should look into ways to make the customization of the standard help text possible (easier). That could address a lot of issues with all the customizations we do.
AMartin 10/17/06	If you let individual users toggle off a Help feature, they may never turn it back on and as such, never avail themselves of such a powerful feature. My thought is that, as admin, I would activate Help for individual fields and the user would have to actively click a button/icon next to the field (as shown in the above image). Activating the Help feature by hovering over the icon is "cool" but would annoy users if Help windows started popping up as they moved around the screen. And most importantly, the Help feature should be available in both Detail and Edit windows.
stratus_admin 10/18/06	AMartin - You don't have to worry about the annoyance from hovering - you can use the pause method or onclick event. A great example is on the System status page: http://trust.salesforce.com/ All of the checks have a pop-up box that includes information.
Cosima 10/19/06	I believe there an application on the Appexchange (QuickSuccess) but it involves costs of USD 10 per month and user as it's an external service provider? http://www.crsol.com/quicksuccess/< think it should be a standard feature on SF without any extra costs.
ACMJLLH 10/20/06	This would be a great tool for our users and I agree it should be included in one of the next rollouts. We shouldn't have to pay monthly/per user fees for what should be a standard feature.
Wireless2 10/20/06	Agree with posted comments
PeterJCooper 10/22/06	Adoption of this feature would be faster if it defaulted to 'on' if there are existing descriptions entered by the administrator at the time the custom object or field was set up. Best approach is probably to have a dedicated field level help text area at the field for all field (not just custom) and default that value to the admin description initially. That way any SFDC clients requiring different settings can add or change them but the majority of users get immediate benefits. Separately, the abaility to customise at the layout or role level would be nice but not essential or urgent.
fjw 10/26/06	Great idea but I would have a different field for field specific help. We use the description for just that, documenting the requirements including who changed the field and internal tracking information.
YoBerger 10/27/06	We have been waiting for this function for a long time. Something that will be easy to display what specific information is expected for the field - it should show up when mouse is held over for a second or two.
cpierre 10/27/06	AMEN!
Sales_Ops 11/01/06	I would love to see this feature come to fruition. It would be best if it was controlled by a separate help field...not the description field.
wgerola 12/04/06	I specifically would like to use this to enable sales people to view the description of a sales stage to help them choose in which stage their opportunity lies. When you setup your stages, you enter a description in the Stage field in Opportunities. However, this description is used no where else in the application. What is the point of this description field? This description should show up when a sales person is selecting sales stage. This would eliminate the need for salespeople to open up another document to look up the sales stages and their criteria.
RickB 12/19/06	This should also be available on both custom and standard fields. I would be helpful to also all the entry of a perminently visible test field that could provide some direct under a field, i.e. naming convention.
James_McGill 01/06/07	Merged Idea originally posted 01/03/07 Use Object Description as Hover Text Descriptions can be added to custom objects but they serve little purpose. I would like the option to have the description act as hover text for the field. This could be used to describe the field purpose, etc. This would also be beneficial for standard fields.
RK 01/07/07	I'll beg for this one :)
SSilver 01/09/07	I've been asked by many users for this feature. It would be much better than publishing separate "cheat sheets" that get stale quickly. It should be available for both standard and custom fields, and the help information should follow the field if the field is moved on a page layout. Either a mouse rollover, or a "?" button next to the field name would work. I'd also like to see the help come in two parts: 1) help/explanation of the field and 2) a sample entry
IanWright 01/12/07	Awesome Idea! This will help users immensely. I requested this several months ago as a feature request so fingers crossed!
KevinEdelmann 01/16/07	Great Idea! One additional thing that would make implementing this better would be the ability to import the help field information via a wizard or data loader as some companies have a significant # of fields that would need to be updated before put out to the users.
lostpuppie 01/26/07	Merged Idea originally posted 01/25/07 Mouseover Field & Required Description for Fields It would be great if there was a legend that end users can refer to for the definition on all fields. One way this could be accomplished is to have a mouse over pop-up that shows the description of the field. Also, the description field for every custom field should be required which will track why the field was created and the intended purpose for use.
Leyna 01/26/07	Merged Comment originally posted 01/25/07 I whole-heartedly agree with this. It would seem to be an easy and quite beneficial upgrade.
JamesRuttley 01/26/07	Merged Comment originally posted 01/26/07 Great idea - in addition to the comments made in the original suggestion, the user could also enter who is responsible for the content of each field e.g. Sales Team, Support Team etc.
Louise 01/26/07	Merged Comment originally posted 01/26/07 Absolutely. We develop apps available in AppExchange. We need to tell users how to use the fields that they download into their Saleforce org. We put information in the field description, but that's a long, long way away from the end-user, navigationally speaking.
adrian@rti.com 01/26/07	Merged Comment originally posted 01/26/07 Yes, this would be great, especially if this could be easily turned on and off. Kind of like enabling "Show Help" w/ Macs.
anyh00 01/29/07	This is definitely something we have been wanting for a looong time - it will go a long way with user adoption in our org, and making sure people put the right information in the fields!!
bhare 02/28/07	This is a great idea. I owuld like to offer one "amendment" to it. I write reports. We are trying to find a way to use MS Access or BRIO. However it is difficult to do becuase we dont have a database schema. One way to get around this problem would be to add the table name and field name to the help. I have seen this done in other applications and it is very useful.
CKZhou 03/15/07	This is really good idea, my users has been asking for such tips.
JCG 03/21/07	Merged Idea originally posted 01/29/07 Mouse over Help on Fields All object fields have a description field that allows for documenting the purpose of the field. This data, however, is not available for general use. It would be nice to make this data available via the forms where their related fields appear. As an example, imaging being able to mouse over the Rating field label in the Account object to display the definitions for the various rating selections that are available. This enhancement would serve as a great training aid for getting new users up to speed with the system.
Leyna 03/21/07	Merged Comment originally posted 01/29/07 I LOVE this idea, but I think it might be a duplicate of another idea titled "Customizable Field Level Help"
DylanGray 03/21/07	Merged Comment originally posted 01/30/07 This would be uhfely helpful. Then we can have built in help for our users on all the fields to assist them to enter the correct information
mtlcanuck 03/22/07	I agree this would greatly improve the user adoption rate along with going further to ensure data integrity!
FredericDupuis 03/29/07	Merged Idea originally posted 03/28/07 Formatting Indication while editing One of the issues we meet in Salesforce is the way of filling the free text field. In order to guarentee a kind of harmony within the users, It would be nice if while a user is writing something, an indication pop up to tell him how to fill the field the best. e.g. phone number should be +##(Country code) ### (regional code) #########(Number) or First letter of a Company Name always in capital letter, rest of the name normal. etc. With AJAX programming it shouldn't be that difficult to implement (it's a kind of "on mouse over" action).
TomaszOczapowski 03/29/07	Merged Comment originally posted 03/28/07 Field level help will achieve the same. See existing idea here http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/23982
werewolf 03/29/07	Merged Comment originally posted 03/29/07 You can use a Validation Rule to accomplish this to some degree. Try setting a validation rule on the Account Site field to generate an error if the text is not formatted as "something, something" -- and put a decently descriptive error in there. It's not quite a mouseover, but users will only do it a couple of times before they get the hang of it.
Shelli@RedHat 04/26/07	I must be dreaming, as I thought I saw something like this at DreamForce ??
BetsyMoyerTDP 05/02/07	Merged Idea originally posted 04/28/07 Hover or Mouse-over Icon for Field Description or Help In deploying many new processes in Salesforce.com, I find I am often creating lengthy training documents with intense screenshots to help burn into our User's minds what each new field accomplishes. One simple addition to Salesforce would help our User Base get quick answers to questionable custom fields. I'd love to see the option to activate a field description display on the User Interface. This option could display a small icon to be hovered over or clicked on to display the field description. (or, you can forgo the icon and just activate a hover action over the Field Label) If this is already an option - I'd love to know how to activate!! Any thoughts?
phiveo5 05/02/07	Merged Comment originally posted 05/01/07 In a few situations, it would be cool to add custom descriptions or notes which pop-up when the user hovers over certain field names, to help guide what the user should enter.
RK 05/02/07	Merged Comment originally posted 05/01/07 Yes, yes, yes. Please!
AMartin 05/02/07	Merged Comment originally posted 05/01/07 duplicate idea. http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/23982
BetsyMoyerTDP 05/03/07	Hi there. Great to see so much activity on this idea. I whole-heartedly welcome a new Help field to any/all standard fields. I don't necessarily agree that you should be able to toggle it on/off per user (perhaps they can just toggle on/off for the hover option versus a click to view option for the help icon). I definitely agree that it should only appear if the Help field is populated with descriptive text. :) I really hope this pans out for the next RollOut as it would save our Salesforce Admin team tons of time and will also ease the apprehension of Custom Field Implementation into our current processes! Thanks so much, Betsy
jgreene 05/05/07	I tried to simulate this feature by adding a read-only field to the page layout, but unfortunately it didn't show up in "edit" mode. I am definitely in favor of a feature that would allow me to add instructions or "help" text to a page layout.
EricB 05/26/07	Changed status to Coming Soon.
msnowden213 05/30/07	this is good news, right now I am having to create fake picklists above fields as instruction boxes... using descriptions for fields only where needed would clean up my objects and give us better, more clear information and give the help where needed.
EricB 06/06/07	Changed status to Coming in Summer 07.
msnowden213 06/06/07	Awesome!
a0v30000000DjfFAAS 06/29/07	This works nicely but it's only available for custom fields. Personally, I needed this for some standard fields such as the Opportunity Sales Stage. Aiden
EvanC 06/29/07	I second that -- we need this feature on standard fields too or we probably won't use it!!
KevinEdelmann 07/02/07	I agree as well. Hopefully custom fields are just the first to be done. :)
mpark 07/12/07	Hi - Excited to see this feature is coming. I just got my prerelease login and it's not available yet. I'd like to test it out. Is it a for sure item for summer? Also, it would be nice to enable on Standard Fields as well. Especially on the Opportunity Stage, Amount, Close Date fields. You could use a check box in the field edit to turn it on/off? Mike
jsherman 09/05/07	Changed status to Delivered.
dbmadp Feb 11	Can we have the ability to include the field "description" and / or the "help" in a report? This would be a great addition to new-hire user doc.
sgaikwad Nov 5	Use Object Description as Hover Text "Descriptions can be added to custom objects but they serve little purpose. I would like the option to have the description act as hover text for the field. This could be used to describe the field purpose, etc. This would also be beneficial for standard fields." I am asking if this released where you can see help text for standard fields?

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