Tables

A table keeps records your team adds to and updates, like contacts, deals or inventory. Work that gets finished belongs on a task board.

Create a table

Click the + beside a space’s name and choose Table, or click New table on the space’s Tables page. A new table has one field, Name. Table names are unique within a space.

On the table’s page, the three-dot menu has Rename, Copy link, Indexes and Delete. Deleting takes the rows with it; Edit > Undo brings both back.

Fields

Add field (the + at the end of the header) adds one, up to 100. Click a header for its menu: rename, change the type, settings, Sort ascending, Sort descending, Filter, Hide, Insert left, Insert right, Duplicate and Delete. Drag a header to move the column.

Type	Holds
Title	The row’s name, in the Name field
Text	Notes, one line or many
Number	Counts and measures
Currency	Amounts in one currency, USD by default
Checkbox	Yes or no
Date	A calendar day
Select	One option from a list
Multi-select	Any options from a list
Person	Workspace members
Relation	Rows of another table
URL, Email, Phone	A link, an address, a number
Files	Uploaded files and images
JSON	Structured data, up to 64 KB; can’t be sorted, indexed or unique

Changing a type keeps the values, and the menu says how they will read.

• Options sets a select’s choices: Add an option, rename, color, reorder or delete, up to 200. You can also type a new one in a cell and choose Create.
• Allow multiple people or Allow multiple rows lets a Person or Relation field hold several. Manual order keeps them in the order added.
• Remove name field turns the name into a text field; rows then show their first values. Add name field in Fields brings one back.

Rows

• Click a cell and type. Paste cells from Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets; extra rows become new rows.
• New adds a row at the top and opens it, with values that match your filters.
• Drag a row’s handle to move it, when the table isn’t sorted. Check rows to Delete them.
• ⌘F finds text in the rows.

Hover a row and click Open, or press Space, to open it beside the table: every field, Linked from, and Details for notes. Its menu has Copy link, Duplicate row and Delete row. Other people show as they work, their cell outlined with their name.

Sort, filter and hide fields

Filter, Sort and Fields above the table are yours alone: “Only you see this, on this device.” Column widths are too. Nothing is saved to the table, and there are no shared views. You can sort by several fields; every filter must match. Fields hides columns.

Relations

A Relation field links to rows of any table you can see, in any space, including its own. Choose it under Linked Table. Links go one way. A linked row lists what points at it under Linked from: rows of other tables, and tasks whose board has a relation field (see Tasks and boards).

Indexes and unique fields

An index keeps rows in order by fields you choose, so a large table can sort, filter and find rows without reading every one. Agents and extensions also look rows up through indexes. Matter never makes one on its own: sorting and filtering don’t.

Choose Indexes from the table’s menu, then New index:

• Name, like by_email.
• Match fields: what rows are looked up by. Text matches with Ignore case, Exact or Ignore case and accents.
• Order fields: the order rows come in, Ascending or Descending.
• Unique: no two rows may share the match fields’ values. Empty values don’t count.

An index holds up to three fields, but no Files or JSON. A table can have up to 100 indexes. After Create index, it shows Building, then Ready, or Failed with the reason. Open one to Edit or Delete it.

To keep one field unique, turn on Unique in its menu. It’s offered for Text, Number, URL, Email and Phone; text also gets Matching. If rows already share a value, Matter lists them: change or clear one of each, then turn Unique on again. After that, a repeated value shows “Already used by” and the row, with Open.

Extension developers, see Tables and indexes.

Large tables

Up to 10,000 rows, your Mac keeps a copy of the table. Above that, the table becomes large: its rows stay on the server and load as you scroll. It syncs to your Mac again below 8,000 rows. In a large table:

• The count reads “10,000+ rows”.
• A sort or filter reads through a ready index that fits it. An index fits sorts and exact-value filters (is, is any of, has any of), not contains on its own.
• Without one, the server reads every row, and the bar under the table says “Sorting without an index”. Add index builds the one that fits, and the table switches to it when ready. Past a million rows or a few seconds, it needs that index.
• ⌘F and row selection cover only the rows loaded so far.
• Linked from may need an index on the linking field: choose Show or Add index.
• Offline, you see the rows saved on your Mac.