Create Picklists and Field Dependencies | Trailhead Screen Reader Instructions

Introduction

Sales Operations divides AW Computing’s sales territory into regions and zones. Yuko Ishikawa would like to be able to identify each account record by its region and zone. Allison Wheeler, VP of Global Sales, would like to track the reasons opportunities are being won or lost, ensuring that users can select only the appropriate reasons, and only when the opportunity is at Closed Won or Closed Lost. To accomplish what they want, you set up picklists and field dependencies.

Picklists offer a selection of options available for specific fields in a Salesforce object, such as a list of regions. Users can then choose a single value from a list of options rather than make an entry directly in the field, which cuts down on errors and helps keep data clean. Field dependencies are filters that allow us to change the contents of a picklist based on the value of another field. Rather than displaying every value for Region in a single picklist, you can limit the values that are displayed based on a value for another field, like Zone. That way our users can find the appropriate option more quickly and easily.

Yuko and Allison both provided the information you need via Chatter posts, so let’s get to it.

Create Picklists

Start by creating a global picklist value set called Region.

1. From Setup, ensure the Home tab is selected.
2. Enter Picklist Value Sets in the Setup search box at the top of the page and select the result for Picklist Value Sets.
3. Activate the New button and fill in the details.

   Field	Value
   Label	Region
   Description	For use in region fields throughout AW’s org.
   Enter regions, each on a new line	APAC, EMEA, LATAM, US, Canada

4. Activate the Save button.

Next, create a custom picklist field called Region on the lead and account objects.

1. From Setup, select the Object Manager tab and select Lead from the object table.
2. Select the Fields & Relationships tab and activate the New Custom Field button.
3. Select Picklist as the Data Type
4. Press ENTER on  Next and fill in the details.
5. Enter Region for the Field Label.
6. Select the radio button for  Use global picklist value set, then select Region from the combo box beneath it.
7. For Description, enter:
   Customer’s geographical region—for sales operations use only.
8. For Help Text, enter:
   In which region is the customer based?
9. Activate the Next button.
10. Select the checkbox in the Read-Only column header.
11. Deselect the Sales User from the Read-Only column, then activate the Next button.
12. Be sure to deselect the checkbox for Add Field. We do not want to add this field to a page layout at this time. In order to use an accessibility workaround for an upcoming step, we need to leave the field off of the page for now. Normally, you would want the field to appear on a page.
13. Activate the Save button.

Next, create the same field on the Account object following the same steps. 

1. Return to the Object Manager and select Account.
2. Repeat the steps from above. Remember to uncheck that Add Field checkbox at the last step! We do not want to add the region field to a page layout just yet.

Create a custom picklist field called Zone on the Account object, editable by Sales Users only.

1. Activate the New Custom Field button.
2. Choose Picklist as the Data Type and press ENTER on Next.
3. Enter Zone as the Field Label.
4. Select the radio button for  Enter values, with each value separated by a new line.
5. In the edit field beneath it, enter these values, each on their own line.
   • East Asia
   • Oceania
   • Southeast Asia
   • Africa
   • Europe
   • Middle East
   • UK + Ireland
   • Mexico
   • Caribbean
   • Central America
   • South America
   • Midwest US
   • Northeast US
   • Southeast US
   • Southwest US
   • West US
   • Northern Canada
   • Mountains and the West
   • The Prairies
   • Central Canada
   • East Coast
6. For Description, enter:
   Customer’s zone within the selected region—for sales operations use only.
7. For Help Text, enter:
   In which zone is this customer based? Depends on region.
8. Activate the Next button.
9. Select the checkbox in the Read-Only column header.
10. Deselect the Sales User checkbox in the Read-Only column. Activate the Next button.
11. Uncheck the Add field checkbox. This step is very important!
12. Activate the Save button.

Create Field Dependencies

Create a dependency between these two picklists, so that when a Region is selected, only respective zones are available in the Zone field. We’ll go through this step by step, but you can take a look at the help article:

Using the Field Dependency Matrix with a Keyboard or Screen Reader

for an overview.

Note: Users of JAWS 2023 have reported difficulty reading the field dependency table correctly once the first value has been included. JAWS 2022 and NVDA behave as expected.

1. While still viewing the Account object in the Object Manager, select the Fields & Relationships tab.
2. Activate the Field Dependencies button.
3. Activate the New button.
4. Select Region as the Controlling Field.
5. Select Zone as the Dependent Field.
6. Activate the Continue button.
7. Select the appropriate zones in each column. For each region, navigate to its column in the table. Then, move down the column and press ENTER on one of the zones that should be included. Then, activate the include button to add that zone to the region's list. You must do this one at a time for each zone in each region.
   For example, navigate to the APAC column, then move down one cell to East Asia. Press ENTER, then activate the Include button to add the East Asia zone to the APAC region.
   • APAC region column includes these zones: East Asia, Oceania, Southeast Asia
   • EMEA region column includes these zones: Africa, Europe, Middle East, UK + Irelan
   • LATAM region column includes these zones: Mexico, Caribbean, Central America, South America
   • US region column includes these zones: Midwest US, Northeast US, Southeast US, Southwest US, West US
   • Canada region column includes these zones: Northern Canada, Mountains and the West, The Prairies, Central Canada, East Coast 
8. Activate the Preview button, then test the dependency by selecting different regions from the Region combo box and viewing the different zones available for each region in the Zone combo box.
9. Activate the Close  button to close the preview window.
10. Activate the Save button.

Create a custom picklist field called Close Reason, editable by Sales Users only.

1. From Setup, select the Object Manager tab and choose Opportunity.
2. Select the Fields & Relationships tab, and activate the New Custom Field button.
3. Select Picklist (Multi-Select) as the Data Type, then press ENTER on  Next.
4. Enter Close Reason as the Field Label.
5. Select the radio button for  Enter values with each value separated by a new line. In the edit field for the values, paste the below entries:
   Lost: Competitor
   Lost: Price
   Lost: Product Features
   Lost: Project Abandoned
   Lost: Company Budget Constraints
   Lost: Other Reason
   Won: Competitor
   Won: Price
   Won: Product Features
   Won: Other Reason
6. Enter 6 for # Visible Lines.
7. For Description, enter:
   Created for the VP of Global Sales to track wins and losses.
8. For Help Text, enter:
   When you close the opportunity, select one or more values that best describe your reason for closing.
9. Activate the Next button.
10. Select the checkbox in the Read-Only column header.
11. Deselect the Sales User from the Read-Only column.
12. Activate the Next button and then the Save button.

Create a dependency between the Stage field and the new Close Reason field. Note: Not all Stage values will have a dependent Close Reason.

1. While still viewing the Opportunity object Fields & Relationships, activate the Field Dependencies button.
2. Activate the New button, and set up the new field dependency.
3. Select Stage as the Controlling Field.
4. Select Close Reason as the Dependent Field.
5. Activate the Continue button.
6. At the top of the second table, press ENTER on the Next  link until you see the Closed Won and Closed Lost columns appear in the table. Pressing ENTER on the Next link will scroll the table horizontally so that more values of the Stage field picklist become visible.
7. Press ENTER  on each value and then press ENTER on the Include button to select the appropriate Close Reasons in the Closed Won and Closed Lost columns. You must choose values and include them one at a time.
   • For the Closed Won column: Select all values starting with “Won”
   • For the Closed Lost column: Select all values starting with “Lost”
8. Activate the Preview button, then test the dependency by selecting different stages and viewing the different close reasons available for each stage.
9. Activate the Close button to close the preview window.
10. Activate the Save button, and press ENTER on  OK to accept the warning that not all dependent values have been included.

By setting up picklists and field dependencies, you’ve helped Yuko’s and Allison’s teams work more efficiently and keep their data clean. You continue to improve things for users in the next step, where you create lookup filters.

Click to return to the unit on Trailhead to verify this step.