In Coda, tables can take many different forms. For each table and view you create, you can choose between several display types, including card view, calendar view, and detail view. Detail views allow you to display all in the information for one row at a time, in an expanded and customizable layout. You can then use the left-hand navigation bar to switch between rows. Continue reading to learn all about creating, customizing, and using detail views.

Create a detail view

It's usually easiest to start with an existing table or view for building your detail view. Once you have the table that you want, just follow these steps:

Hover over the table, and select Options in the upper right corner.
At the top of the options panel, select the Detail option.

That’s it! Your table or view is now a detail display. You can read the sections below to learn about customizing and utilizing your table.

💡 Tip: Want to create a detail view from scratch, without an existing table? Just type /detail into any new line on your doc’s canvas, select Detail view, and choose Start blank.

Customize your detail view

Now that you’ve created your detail view, you can start customizing it for your needs.

Edit row layout

First and foremost, you can customize your detail view by modifying the row layout. Row layout refers to the organization of information in each row. By editing row layouts, you can...

decide which columns are visible and which are hidden
rearrange the order of columns
align columns side-by-side
add column labels of different sizes
choose whether to hide or show the Show hidden columns button at the bottom of each row
choose whether to hide or show comments and row activity at the bottom of each row

To edit a row layout, simply hover over your detail view, and click Display in the upper right corner. This will open the display settings for your detail view. At the top, you can either use the drop-down to pick from any existing row layouts you’ve created. Or click Edit layout to simply edit the current row layout.

💡 Tip: You can also edit the layout by hovering over the detail view, then clicking the vertical three-dot menu that appears within the upper right corner of the table. Then select Edit layout. Or if you want to use an existing layout that you’ve already created in the past, choose Pick a different layout and select from the options.

From there, this article will walk you through all the details of editing row layouts.

Choose row navigation method

You have two options for how you navigate through rows in your detail view: Left or bottom:

If you choose left navigation, previews of each row will appear in a left-hand panel of the detail view. You can click or arrow through the rows.
If you choose bottom, arrows and row counts will appear at the bottom of your detail view, which you can use to scroll through rows. No row previews are shown.

To change the navigation type, just hover over your detail view, click Display in the upper right corner, and find the Navigation setting.

Choose a description column

If you opt for the left navigation option for your detail view, you will see a preview of all rows on the left-hand side. This preview will first show the display column value for that row (learn about display columns here). Below that bolded display column value, you may also see a secondary value. You can use the table’s display settings to change which value - if any - is display here.

To do so, just hover over the detail view, and click on Display in the upper right. Then you should see a Description column setting. Use this dropdown to choose which column you want to be displayed in the row preview. If you don’t want anything shown other than the display column, choose [None].

FAQs

How do I edit the row layout of a detail view?

To edit the row layout, hover over the detail view then select Display in the upper left. This will open the display settings. At the top, you can either use the dropdown to select an existing layout (or create a new one), or click Edit layout to edit the current layout. From there, refer to this article for all the details on editing a row layout.

Can I add conditional formatting to a detail view?

At this time, conditional formatting is not supported for detail views.

How do I change what information is shown in the row preview of a detail view?

The row preview will always show whatever is in the display column for that row. To change what’s displayed here, you will need to change the display column for the table.

Then you also have the option to include a second column in the row preview. This “description” column can be any of the other columns in the table, or can be omitted entirely. Check out the section above to learn more.

How can I change the order of rows in my detail view?

Like with all tables in Coda, you can use the table’s sort feature to determine the order of rows in the detail view. Learn more here.