Highlights Panel customization is purely a Compact Layout exercise. The work runs through Object Manager.
- Open Compact Layouts
Setup, Object Manager, pick the object (Opportunity for the canonical example), click Compact Layouts. The list shows the System Default and any custom layouts.
- Edit the Master Compact Layout
Click Edit next to the Master layout. The drag-and-drop editor shows available fields on the left and the layout on the right.
- Pick the four to eight most important fields
Add fields in the order they should appear. For Opportunity, a typical sequence is Account Name, Amount, Close Date, Stage, Owner.
- Save the layout
Save. The change applies to the master layout immediately and propagates to any record type assigned to it.
- Verify on a record
Open a record of the object. The Highlights Panel at the top should show the new field set in the chosen order.
- Assign per record type if needed
For record types that need different highlights, create a separate Compact Layout and assign it via Record Type Assignments.
- The Compact Layout drives mobile views and search previews, not just the Highlights Panel. Changes affect every surface, not just the desktop record header.
- Different record types can have different Compact Layouts. Forgetting to update all assignments leaves users on some record types seeing the old layout.
- Field-level security can blank out fields on the panel for restrictive profiles. Design with the lowest-permission user in mind.
- The Highlights Panel does not support conditional logic. Use a custom Lightning Web Component when business rules require show-or-hide behavior beyond what FLS provides.