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Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable
  • Pages
    • Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable
      • Fields
        • Overview of fields types
          • Editable Field Types
          • Computed Field Types
          • Field Types by Formula Data Type
          • Field Types in Scripting
        • Specific field types
          • Formula fields
            • Demystifying Formulas (DareTable 2022)
          • Rollup fields
          • Select fields
          • Attachment fields
            • Uploading Attachments
            • Attachment Size
            • Attachment URLS
            • Thumbnails
        • Converting Field Types
        • Naming fields
        • Metadata fields
          • Simple Metadata Fields
          • Data Validation
          • Additional Dependencies
          • Original Record URL (Thumbprint) Field
          • Column Divider Fields
          • DareTable 2023 Presentation
        • Field dependencies
      • Formulas
        • Formula Field Reference
        • Writing Formulas
          • Using AI to Write Formulas
          • General tips for writing formulas
          • Testing for Blank Values
          • Drafting Formulas in Parts
          • Function versus Operator
          • Typing Special Characters
          • Commenting Formulas
          • Formulas to avoid
        • Formatting Formulas
          • Basic Rules
          • Nested IF formulas
          • SWITCH Formulas
          • Operators
        • Specific Formulas
          • Ranges of Numbers Values
          • Comma Separated List of Fields Values with Optional Fields
          • Earliest / latest date across columns
          • List Fields Values (one per line) with Optional Fields
          • Rounding a date to the half year
          • Url of Interface Page for a record
          • Removing varying items from a list
        • Data Type Conversion in Formulas
          • Text to Numbers
          • Numbers to Text
          • Data type conversions with Dates
        • Troubleshooting Formulas
          • Formulas that won't save
          • Hiding or showing #ERROR!
          • Troubleshooting date/time/duration formulas
          • Troubleshooting numeric formulas
          • Troubleshooting formulas with lookups
          • Troubleshooting text formulas
      • Automations
        • Triggering automations
          • Triggering automations for typed values
          • Triggering automations on existing records
        • Sending Emails
          • Ways to send emails
          • Using links in emails
          • Emailing Attachments
        • Accessing updated record values
        • Third party automations
        • Managing automation runs
      • Templates
        • Templates for record values
        • Templates using field values
      • Controlling Access
        • Sharing a base
        • Access control considerations
        • Techniques for limited access
          • Airtable interface
          • Share link access
          • Synced table
          • Prefilled forms + Automations
          • 3rd party portal
          • 3rd party webhook
        • Preventing base duplication
      • Specific Solutions
        • Most recent form submission for ermail
        • Email digest of a person’s records
        • Sum of Multiple Select choices
        • Link to multiple records based on select choices
        • Dropping Lowest Score (top 4 of 5)
        • Identify the position of a record in a linked record field (top 4 of 6)
        • Sequential Numbering of Records
        • Ending a list of rollup items with ", and"
        • Table ID in a formula
        • Latest/earliest date across several fields
        • Associating People with Records
        • First Tuesday of the Previous Month
      • Miscellaneous
        • Web API Calls for External Integrations
        • Getting paid to work with Airtable
        • Hiring a consultant
        • Airtable Communities
        • Making major changes to a base
      • Suggestion for this guide
      • Future Content Ideas
        • 🚧Normalized Design
          • Templates
Kuovonne's Guide to Airtable
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Templates
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Templates

Should you start with a base template?
The only thing I have found templates useful for was to get ideas for fields and dashboards when building something when I didn't have existing subject matter knowledge.
The few times when I considered starting with a template for a production project, I found that the template would need so much changing that I was better off starting from scratch. I was better off building only what I needed than using a template and ripping out what didn't apply. I saw projects where other people started with a template that had stuff they didn't need and a few months or years later they didn't understand their bases and didn't know what was important and was just leftover stuff. Back when I was first learning Airtable there were far fewer templates and they were fairly basic. If I hadn't already understood relational design, I think they would have been good for learning about relational design and how linked relationships worked.
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