Create a Long Text Area field on any standard or custom object through Object Manager. The steps below follow the standard custom field wizard in Setup.
- Open Object Manager and pick the object
In Setup, go to Object Manager, select the object that needs the field, then open Fields and Relationships and click New.
- Choose the Text Area (Long) data type
On the data type step, select Text Area (Long). This is the option that maps to a Long Text Area field. Pick Text Area (Rich) instead only if you need formatting. Click Next.
- Set the label, length, and visible lines
Enter the field label and let the API name populate. Set Length up to 131,072 characters and set # Visible Lines to control the height of the input box on the page. Add help text if it aids users.
- Set field-level security and page layouts
Choose which profiles can see and edit the field, then select the page layouts where it should appear. Save to finish, and the field is live on the object.
The human-readable name shown on layouts and reports; the API name is derived from it.
The character cap for this field, from 256 up to 131,072; counts against the object's 1,638,400 character text budget.
How many rows of the text box render on the record page; affects display height only, not capacity.
- Do not declare 131,072 characters out of habit. The declared length counts toward the object's shared 1,638,400 character pool for all long and rich text fields.
- Users cannot filter list views by this field, and report filters only read its first 254 characters with the contains operator.
- Converting a Rich Text Area to a Long Text Area deletes any images and strips formatting the next time the record is saved.