Choosing Fields for a Content Type
Fields are the heart of a Content Type. They're the blanks each Item fills in: the title, the price, the photos, the description. Get your fields right and adding new entries becomes as easy as filling out a short form. This article walks through how fields work and every field type you can choose, with a real example for each so you know exactly when to reach for it.
Where you set up fields
Open Content → Content Types in your admin, click the Content Type you're building (or create a new one), and go to the Custom Fields tab. This is where you add, name, and arrange the fields that every Item of this type will share. Add a field, pick its type, save. That's the whole loop.
The four parts of every field
No matter which type you pick, each field you add has the same four settings:
- Field key: a short internal name, like
priceorcompletionDate. This is the name you'll use behind the scenes when you design your pages and want a section to pull from this field. Keep it short and lowercase with no spaces. It is also the name you type in curly brackets to drop this field into the middle of a sentence, as in{custom.field.price}, so a short clear key reads better later. - Display label: the friendly name that shows above the field when you (or your team) fill in an Item, like "Starting Price" or "Completion Date." This one can be as readable as you like.
- Type, what kind of information the field holds: a line of text, a number, an image, a date, and so on. The full list is below.
- Required: a simple on/off toggle that marks which fields a finished Item needs. It is a signal to whoever is filling the Item in, not a lock, so a part-finished Item still saves. Turn it on for the things every entry truly must have (a price on a menu item, a photo on a project) and leave it off for the optional extras.
Every field type, with an example
Choosing the right type matters, because it decides what the person filling in an Item actually sees: a plain text box, a date picker, an image uploader, a set of checkboxes. Here's the complete menu:
| Field type | What it holds | Good example |
|---|---|---|
| Text | A single line of plain words. | A person's name, a project location, a street address. |
| Textarea | A short block of plain text over a few lines (no formatting). | A one-paragraph summary of a service or a short project blurb. |
| Rich Text | Formatted body copy with headings, bold, links, and bullet lists. | The full write-up on a service page or the story behind a project. |
| Number | Digits only, for anything you'd count or measure. | A price, a square footage, a bedroom count, a star rating. |
| Date | A single calendar date, chosen from a date picker. | A project's completion date or an event date. |
| Image | One image. | A team member's headshot or a property's floor plan. |
| Images | A whole set of images uploaded together. | A photo gallery of a finished project or a property's listing photos. |
| URL | A web link. | A link to a case study PDF, a partner's site, or a booking page. |
| An email address. | A team member's direct contact email. | |
| Select | Pick one option from a list you type out yourself as comma-separated choices. | A project category: Branding, Web Design, Packaging, Motion. |
| Multi-select | Pick several options at once (works like tags). | Features on a property: Garage, Pool, Fireplace, Balcony. |
| List | A repeating mini-table with its own columns, so each Item can hold a variable number of rows. | The dishes in a menu section, or a spec sheet where each row is a label and a value. |
| Group | A one-time bundle of related fields kept together (not repeating). | A "Contact block" grouping a phone number, email, and office hours together. |
A closer look at Select and Multi-select
Both of these ask you to type your choices as a simple comma-separated list when you set up the field, for example, Branding, Web Design, Packaging, Motion. The difference is how many an Item can pick:
- Select lets each Item choose exactly one, perfect for a single category.
- Multi-select lets each Item choose as many as apply, perfect for tags or feature checklists.
These two field types are also special because they can power the filter buttons on your listing page (covered in Designing the Listing (Archive) Page). If you want visitors to filter your projects by category, a Select field is what makes that possible. So it's worth adding one even if you're not sure yet.
You can change the list of choices later, and your existing Items keep up. When you press Publish on the Content Type, any Item still holding an old wording is brought in line: reword a choice slightly ("Kitchen" to "Kitchens") and every Item that used it moves across, so your filter buttons and card labels stay in step. Take a choice out, or swap it for something completely different, and it's cleared from the Items that had it, so only remove one when you mean to. None of this happens while you're typing. Your work saves as a draft as you go and no Item is touched until you publish, so you can rewrite the list freely and commit only when it reads right.
A closer look at List
Reach for List when a single Item needs to hold a variable number of small, structured rows. A menu section might have three dishes or eight; a product might have five spec lines or twelve. You define the columns once (say, "Dish name," "Description," "Price"), and then on each Item you add, remove, and reorder rows to fit. It keeps repeating details tidy without you creating a separate field for every possible row.
A closer look at Group
Use Group to bundle a handful of related fields that belong together but only appear once per Item. Unlike a List, a Group doesn't repeat. It's a single tidy cluster. It's mostly about keeping your Item editor organized: grouping "Address line," "City," and "Zip" under one "Location" heading is friendlier to fill in than three loose fields scattered down the form.
Tips for choosing your fields
- Keep field keys simple. Short, lowercase, and descriptive (
price,heroImage,completionDate). You'll reference these keys later when you design your pages and connect a section to a field, so a clear name saves you head-scratching down the road. - The display label is for people; the field key is for the design. Make the label read nicely ("Starting Price"); make the key short (
price). They don't have to match. - Only mark a field Required if every Item truly needs it. If some projects won't have a video link, leave that field optional so the marker keeps meaning something.
- Add a Select or Multi-select field if you'll ever want filtering. It's the ingredient that turns into filter buttons on your listing page.
- Start with the essentials and grow. You can add or adjust fields at any time, and every Item picks up the change. There's no penalty for keeping your first version lean.
Once your fields are in place, you're ready to design how everything looks, starting with the page that lists all your Items.
Dynamic text works in more places than just Item pages. See Using dynamic text for the full picture, including quiz answers and your own look-up tables.