Dropdown

The Dropdown field lets users pick one option from a collapsible list. It takes up minimal space on a form and works well when your option list is too long to show all at once.

What it is

A Dropdown field shows a single selected value by default. When users click on it, the full list of options appears and they select one. Only one option can be chosen at a time. Unlike Radio buttons, the options stay hidden until the user opens the dropdown - which keeps your forms compact when the list is long.

When to use it

• Lead source - Website, Referral, Advertisement, Social Media, Trade Show (a longer list that benefits from being collapsed)
• Industry - when you have many industry categories and want a clean form
• Product category - pick one category from a list of 6 or more
• Country or region - select from a long list without cluttering the form
• Any single-select field with 5+ options - use Dropdown instead of Radio to save space

Working with options

Options are entered as a comma-separated list and are case-sensitive. For example: Open, Closed, Pending.

Once an option is saved and records are using it, you cannot rename it. If you added Pending but later want to call it Hold, these are treated as two different values - existing records will still show Pending. To migrate records to the new value, you can either use the API to update them in bulk, or filter your records by the old value and update each one manually.

Settings

• Options - enter your list of choices; separate each option with a comma or press Enter after each one
• Default Value - choose which option is pre-selected when a new record is created
• Label - the name shown above the field in forms and layouts
• Required - prevents saving the record unless an option is selected
• Is Searchable - includes this field in record search
• Conditional - show or hide the field based on another field's value

Example

In a CRM, you add a Dropdown field labeled Lead Source to your Leads object type. Your options are Website, Referral, Advertisement, Social Media, Trade Show, and Cold Outreach. Since there are six options, a Dropdown keeps the form tidy compared to radio buttons. You set Website as the default value since most of your leads come through the site. Your team can always change it when a lead comes in through another channel.