Working with Compact Layouts

Creating and customizing compact layouts for objects isn't required for the Salesforce app, because system defaults are provided out of the box. However, we recommend using compact layouts to put important fields into object record headers—and elsewhere—to help your mobile users get the information they need quickly.

In the full Salesforce site, a compact layout determines which fields appear in the Chatter feed item that appears after a user creates a record with a quick action.

For example, here are screenshots of a merchandise record page in Salesforce before and after customizing the compact layout for the object.

If you put the key fields that your mobile users need on the compact layout for an object, they can get that information quickly just by scanning the highlights area of the record page.

As with page layouts, there are separate compact layouts for each object. By default, each object derives its record highlight fields, preview cards, and action-related feed items from the predefined set of fields in the object’s read-only, system default compact layout. You can create custom compact layouts on an object-by-object basis. After you create one or more custom compact layouts, you set one as the primary compact layout for the object. The primary compact layout is then used as the new default for that object.