---
title: How to find and open your records
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/records/find-your-records
description: Open an Object's list from the sidebar, read what the table is telling you, and get to the one record you came for.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to find and open your records



Records live inside **Objects**, the kinds of record your team defines, and every Object your
workspace has gets one list in the left sidebar. This page is how you get to that list, read
it, and open the single record you came for. If the word Object is new to you, start at
<Ref to="objects" />.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

You need View on the Object, as <Ref to="records" /> explains. Access is granted per Object,
so being able to open Sample requests tells you nothing about whether you can open Fabric
trials.

## Where do your Objects live? [#where-do-your-objects-live]

In the left sidebar, in the **Objects** group. Each row there is one Object your workspace
defined, and clicking it opens that Object's full list of records. Fairgreen Golf Co.

sees **Sample requests** and **Fabric trials**. The things Tideswell ships with, such as
suppliers, purchase orders and products, are not in this group: they have their own
screens under **Store**.

The group tidies itself as it grows. Past four Objects it starts collapsed, and past eight
it scrolls inside its own area instead of pushing everything else down the sidebar. Rows are
filtered per person, so the list you see is exactly the list you have access to, and an
Object you have no access to is left out rather than shown locked.

Old links keep working. If a teammate sends you an address saved before someone renamed
Sample requests, it still lands on the right list. Renaming is covered in
<Ref to="objects/rename-reorder-retire" />.

## What is the list actually showing you? [#what-is-the-list-actually-showing-you]

Six columns, taken from the first six fields in the order an admin arranged them, newest
record at the top. Money, number, percent and calculated columns are right-aligned so the
figures line up down the page. Everything else lives on the record itself, one click away.

Because the columns come straight from field order, changing what a list shows is a change
to the Object rather than a setting each person keeps for themselves. If the wrong six
things are on screen, an admin reorders the fields. For why the first six are worth thinking
about before a list fills up, read <Ref to="objects/plan-your-fields-first" />.

One column can behave differently from the rest. A calculated column shows a figure worked
out for you rather than one anybody typed, so on a record created moments ago it can read
"Not calculated yet" for a short while. <Ref to="objects/calculated-fields" /> explains what
those are and how to read the freshness line on one.

For how money, percentages and dates are formatted in those columns, see
<Ref to="concepts/numbers-and-dates" />.

## How do I open one record? [#how-do-i-open-one-record]

Click anywhere on its row. On the keyboard, move focus to the row and press Enter. Either
way the record opens on its own page, with its reference number at the top, its fields
below that, and its owner, stage, links and history underneath.

From there, if you hold Update on that Object, you can change anything on the record without
switching into an edit mode first. That is covered in
<Ref to="records/add-and-edit-a-record" />.

To go back to the list, use your browser's back button or click the Object again in the
sidebar. The list reopens where it always does, at the newest record.

## How do I get past the first fifty? [#how-do-i-get-past-the-first-fifty]

Press **Load more** at the foot of the list. It pulls in the next fifty rows underneath the
ones already on screen, and you can press it again for the fifty after that. Nothing you
have loaded disappears while you do it.

Loading more is the right move when you want to read down a list. It is the wrong move
when you are hunting one record out of six hundred.

For that, use the **Search** box in the toolbar above the table, or the **Filter** button
next to it, both of which are covered in <Ref to="records/filter-and-save-a-view" />. A
filter also survives **Load more**, so you can narrow first and then page through what is
left.

## What do the empty screens mean? [#what-do-the-empty-screens-mean]

Three messages, and they mean different things. The first says "No Sample requests yet.

Records you log here will show up in this list, searchable and filterable like every other
Object." That is the ordinary starting state: the Object is set up and waiting for its
first record. Press **New Sample request** and fill in the form.

The second tells you the Object has no fields yet, and offers a **Go to Settings** button.
That one is a message for an admin: nothing can be logged until the Object has something to
fill in. Giving an Object its fields is a job in **Settings › Objects**, covered in
<Ref to="objects" />.

The third tells you that no Sample requests match these filters. The records exist, and your
current filters are excluding all of them. Clear the filters and the list comes back.

## Why can I not see an Object I know exists? [#why-can-i-not-see-an-object-i-know-exists]

Because View is decided per Object and per person. An Object you cannot view is left out of
your sidebar entirely, so the usual symptom is that a colleague describes a list you simply
do not have.

If you open a link to one, you get a padlock page telling you that access is required and
asking you to speak to an admin. That is the whole story: nothing is broken and no data is
missing. Ask an admin to raise the View dial on that Object, which is
<Ref to="objects/permissions" />.

The same idea explains a subtler case. You can open Sample requests but the **New Sample
request** button is missing, or you can read a record but there is no Save.

The four dials are separate, so you can hold one without the others. <Ref to="concepts/who-can-do-what" /> walks through how to work out which one you are short of
before you ask.
