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I work on a web application and i have a list of users. On each user i can do some actions (Enable/Disable and Add/Remove Tax). Now my users could have need to add some note on a row, for example I disabled the users why I didn't receive the payment. To allow this I thought to use the following kind of table:

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but i noted that when I have too many rows, it is much complex to manage. Is this a good solution? Can you give me some suggestions on how to solve this problem?

Update 1

Thanks for you suggestions, but my main problem is When and how should I save the notes?

For example my users could edit a note for a row or rows? What are the best practices?

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  • Updated answer to accommodate your additional information Sep 29, 2015 at 16:28

2 Answers 2

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It seems good to me - what problem are you having?

One idea if you want to make it smaller, assuming this is on PC not device, is you could have the note appear in a popup when you roll-over that row. (Like how "tips" often appear.)

Another idea: can you make it that the end user can turn that column on and off? So, if it's too much clutter, they can choose to turn it off. If needed, turn on.

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  • Popups can work, but only in the case where the user doesn't need to see and compare multiple notes at the same time. Sep 28, 2015 at 15:15
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It sounds like the issue you're facing is one of clutter. You mentioned in a prior comment that your users may need to "compare notes" across multiple users at the same time. So why not do this:

  • Add a checkbox to the far left column of the table (in each row)
  • Limit visible notes to ~100 characters or so
  • When a user is "selected" (ie. their checkbox is checked), expand their notes section to display the entirety of the note

This allows you to limit the amount of clutter you have on the screen, have at least a glimpse of each user's notes, and expand multiple note sections at once.

Other components you may want to consider, depending on how much data you have:

  • Card Containers
  • Rows that can expand to show a more detailed view

It's best you avoid relying on hover/tooltips.

Update - Based on your update ;)

Generally, it is "dangerous" to manage note fields this way. Versioning or logging notes is preferred, as it preserves original text, can add context/history, etc.

If you don't care about any of that, you really have two different behaviors at your disposal to initiate a save:

  • When a user clicks out of a row, or moves to a different user, the user auto-updates/saves
  • As soon as any changes take place, add a "save/update" button to the screen (one that should be their normally, but in a disabled state). The user should click this button to initiate a save. (May be worth have a "save all" button at the top/bottom of the grid as well)

In both of these instances, there should be some sort of indication that a save is taking place when a save is initiated.

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