How to customize your records
There are many reasons — and practically endless ways — to customize your Landscape environment. Whether you want to use your organization’s own terminology, add depth to your queries, or get creative with report logic, Landscape is built to adapt to the way you work.
The fields on Landscape's record pages are fixed, but nearly everything that fills them can be customized in Settings to match how your organization works. That includes dropdown menus, Work Item types and statuses, and much more.
Use this article to find where each kind of customization lives. Then follow the steps here or in the linked articles.
Need to track data that doesn't fit an existing field? Use a Form — read more about them, HERE.
Jump to…
Customizing other dropdown menus
Prerequisites:
You must be a Landscape Administrator to access Settings.
Where to customize what
| To customize… | Go to… | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Work Item types, statuses, and work-specific option lists (like Issue Severities or Resource Categories) | Settings > Work > Work Customization | Customizing Work Items (below) |
| Forms attached to Work Items | Settings > Work > Forms | Click here |
| Dropdown menus for fields in Projects, Portfolio records, Locations, Maps, Funding, Communications, and Species | Settings > List Items | Customizing other dropdown menus (below) |
| Task lists, Budget templates, Cost Categories, and Materials lists | Settings > Projects and Tasks | Click here |
| Your species list | Settings > Species | Click here |
| Report templates and dropdown menus for Report fields | Settings > Reports | Click here |
| Default map layer styling and Custom Map layers | Settings > Map Layers |
Layer styling - Click here Custom layers - Click here |
Customizing Work Items
Work Customization shows every work category, like Site Visit, Issue, or Resource, in one place. For each category, you can manage its types, its statuses, any option lists specific to it, and the form attached to each type.
Instructions:
- Go to Settings > Work > Work Customization.
- Select a work category. To find one by name, use the Filter by category name box. The list shows how many types each category has.
- The category's settings open on the right, in two sections: Category Fields and Types.
More about Category Fields and Types
Category fields belong to every Work Item in that category; think of them as shared characteristics amongst all the types within a category. These include Name, Status, and in some cases, Category-specific lists (like Issue Severities or Resource Amount Units).
Types divide a category into kinds of work. For example, Acquisition Approval might have "Board of Directors" and "Conservation Committee" types. Each type has an option to automatically link with one Form for collecting information that isn't in the category fields. Read more about using Forms HERE.
- Make your changes. Here are the available actions:
- Add an option: Click + Add.
- Reorder options: Click and drag the handle on the left, or click Sort A-Z.
- Set the default: Click the star icon. The filled star marks the option selected by default on new Work Items.
- Set the completion indicator: Click the circle-check icon next to the status that means the work is done. A filled circle-check marks the status that indicates completion. Setting it doesn't change the status of any Work Item.
- Rename an option: Click in its text box and type.
- Delete an option: Click the trash can. To delete a type, click the … (three dots) menu to find the delete option.
Need to merge duplicate list items? Jump to Consolidating options, below.
Customizing other dropdown menus
Dropdown menus that aren't part of Work Items are managed in List Items, grouped by area: Projects, Portfolio, Locations, Maps, Funding, Communications, and Species.
Instructions:
- Go to Settings > List Items.
- Select the data or record type where the dropdown appears, like Portfolio for Properties/Parcels/Groups.
- Find the list you want to change. Then:
- Add an option: Click the + (plus) button next to the list's header.
- Set the default: Click the star.
- Rename an option: Click in its text box and type.
- Renaming an option updates it everywhere it's already used. For example, if you fix a spelling mistake, the fix appears on every record using that option.
- Delete an option: Select the check box to the left of the item name, then click the trash can at the top of the item list.
- Deleting an option does NOT remove it from existing records. To remove or replace an option on many records at once, use Data Viewer.
Need to merge duplicate list items? Jump to Consolidating options, below.
TIP: Click on the Show ... More button at the bottom of each item list to review all options, especially if you are adding or deleting items.
Consolidating list options
Sometimes a list ends up with two options that mean the same thing. For example, a Record Interests list might have both "Fee Simple" and "Fee." That's confusing for staff, and complicates querying by Property Interest. Consolidating replaces the unwanted option everywhere it's been used.
Instructions - Work Items
- Find the list that has the duplicate.
- Change the test of the unwanted option to match the current one exactly. You will be notified that the list item already exists and ask you to confirm whether to proceed with merging the items.
- Upon clicking Merge, the duplicate item will disappear from the list.
Instructions - All other list items:
- Find the list that has the duplicate.
- Change the text of the unwanted option to match the correct one exactly. This will update the option everywhere it's used, and the list now has two identical options.
- Delete one of the two identical options.
- For Contact Tags only: After deleting the duplicate, rename the remaining tag by adding any character to the end. Click outside the field to save, then click back in and remove the extra character.
