Introducing Page Layouts

After defining all those fields and validation rules, we now have a fully functional Position custom object. However, it doesn't look all that nice—all of the long text areas appear at the top, and it's hard to scan in our desktop browser. Just imagine how hard it would be to scan in a mobile device! Let's move some things around to make this page easier for our users. We can do that by customizing the Position object's page layout.

A page layout controls the position and organization of the fields and related lists that are visible to users when viewing a record. Page layouts also help us control the visibility and editability of the fields on a record. We can set fields as read-only or hidden, and we can also control which fields require users to enter a value and which don't.

Page layouts are powerful tools for creating a good experience for our users, but it's crucial that we remember one important rule: page layouts should never be used to restrict access to sensitive data that a user shouldn't view or edit. Although we can hide a field from a page layout, users can still access that field through other parts of the app, such as in reports or via the API. (We'll learn more about security that covers all parts of the app in Securing and Sharing Data.)

Now let's see if we can organize the fields on our Position object in a way that's more user friendly.