So now that you know what Airtable is and why I love Airtable, let’s discuss some advanced features of Airtable.

Airtable field types

I very briefly touched on Airtable fields in the Meet Airtable post. Airtable fields refer to the type of information you want to track for each record in your table and gives your data structure. There are 20+ rich field types to choose from.

Read more about Airtable Field Types here and here.

Grouping, sorting & filtering of data

Airtable allows you to group, sort and filter your data in many different ways

Grouping

With Airtable’s Group feature you are able to group records according to one or more field types

For example I’m my blog post table I have grouped my records according to status.

Sorting

While grouping refers to combining records according to a specific field, sorting is all about ordering your data according to the values in a specific field. For example, getting back to my blog post table. I grouped my data according to the status of the blog post, but I also wanted to sort it by publish date – this is where the sorting feature comes in. You can sort from A-Z or 1-9 or first to last or vice versa

You can also hide data so that only certain people can see it

Filtering

You are able to also filter your data according to certain conditions and is one of the core features of Airtable views. When you use filtering in Airtable, you are not deleting data but rather hiding the data that you don’t want to see. In order to filter your data you will need to set a rule that must follow to be visible in a particular view.

For example getting back to my blog table, I wanted a view that only showed me the articles I was currently working on, so I created a filter that would show me only those articles and nothing else.

Airtable Forms

Forms are special because they’re primarily designed for feeding information into your base, rather than viewing information that’s already in your base.

With forms, you can collect information from anyone and save it automatically to an Airtable base—great for logging expenses, polling your colleagues, collecting customer information, and many other purposes.

You are able to attach a form to any table inside of your Airtable base. I use Airtable forms extensively. Some examples include: Forms to collect testimonials, forms to collect client information, forms to collect client prep work.

Automations

This is where you can really uplevel your workflow. Automating tasks in your business is the KEY to growing your business without hiring a huge team.

Airtable has built in automations and connects to Zapier for unlimited automation capabilities.

Airtable triggers include:

When a record matches conditions

When a form is submitted

When a record is created

When a record is updated

At a scheduled time

When a record enters a view

Airtable actions include:

Send an email

Create a record

Update a record

Send a Slack message

G-Suite (send email, create new row in google sheet, create a response to a Google form, create a Google calendar event

Create a post action for FB pages

Create Twitter tweet

Examples of what we automate:

New lead books an appointment, their details get added to Airtable

When a lead becomes a client add them to the client Airtable table

When a client fills in a form, send me a slack notification

After VIP Day, send client a thank you email with testimonial request attached

Interface Designer

A newish feature that Airtable recently brought out is their interface designer. This allows you to build a custom interface for your team displaying only the information that is critical for them to see. Perfect for stakeholders, team leaders and collaborators. Want to know more about Airtable’s interface designer? Read about it here.

Want to try Airtable? Check out Airtable here.

Want a more in-depth overview grab Airtable Magic accompanied by a free Airtable template to play with.

Affiliate Disclosure

This article may contain affiliate links. If you purchase or sign up through these links, I may earn a small commission. I never recommend and products I don’t love and use myself.