Action Layout
An Action Layout controls which quick actions appear on a record page and how those actions are organized.
Definition
An Action Layout controls which quick actions appear on a record page and how those actions are organized. Administrators use Action Layouts to customize the set of actions available to users in the Salesforce publisher, such as creating tasks, logging calls, or updating fields directly from a record.
In plain English
“Here's a simple way to think about it: Action Layout decides what users can do without leaving the record. The publisher's button strip - Tasks, Calls, custom actions - appears based on this configuration. On mobile, it becomes the action sheet.”
Worked example
An admin at Bright Horizons Ltd. customizes the Action Layout on the Case page so that agents see a "Log a Call" action, an "Escalate" action, and a "Send Email" action right at the top. By removing less-used actions and reordering the layout, the admin reduces the number of clicks agents need, which speeds up case handling by roughly 20%.
Why Action Layout decides what users can do without leaving the record
Every Salesforce record page has a publisher - the strip of buttons that lets a rep create a Task, log a call, or post to Chatter without navigating away. Action Layout is the configuration that decides what appears there and in what order. Picked actions show up first; the rest collapse into "More". On mobile, the layout becomes the action sheet at the bottom of the screen, where attention is even scarcer.
The reason this matters is engagement. Reps who can log a call in two taps will log it; reps who have to dig through a menu mostly won't, and your activity capture rate drops. Action Layout is one of the few places in Setup where a small change has an immediate behavioural effect on every user of that object - worth tuning per role and per object, not setting once and forgetting.
How to set up Action Layout
Action Layouts control the form that appears when a user clicks a Quick Action — which fields show up, in what order, with which required / read-only states. Each Quick Action has its own Action Layout, configured from the action detail page.
- Open the parent action: Setup → Object Manager → [object] → Buttons, Links, and Actions → click the action
Or for Global Actions: Setup → Global Actions.
- Click Edit Layout (or the Action Layout link)
Distinct from the parent object's Page Layout — Action Layout is per-action.
- Drag fields from the palette onto the layout
Top palette = available fields. Bottom canvas = the layout users see when invoking this action.
- Set Field Properties per field
Hover a field → wrench icon → Required / Read-Only toggles. These apply to this action only — not the field's general behavior.
- (Optional) add Predefined Field Values from the action edit page
Auto-fill fields when the action runs. Hidden fields with predefined values are common for stamping context (Status, Origin).
- Save the Action Layout
Layout is committed. Users invoking the action now see this form.
Drag-and-drop. First field on the layout is the first input users encounter.
Users can't save without entering a value. Per-action, not global.
Field shows but can't be edited — useful for context display.
Auto-set values, configurable from the action edit page (not the layout).
- Action Layout's Required is per-action, not global. A field marked Required on the action's layout is required for this Quick Action only — saving via API or other actions can still skip it.
- Predefined Field Values are evaluated at action-creation time. They're hardcoded — can't reference $User.Id or current-record fields except via Object-Specific Action's $Source mechanism.
- Lightning Record Pages don't override Action Layouts. The layout configured here is what shows in the modal regardless of which Lightning Page the user came from.
How organizations use Action Layout
Tuned Action Layout to surface most-used actions first; activity capture rates rose because logging became easier.
Service Console actions optimized for case workflows; agents complete work without context-switching.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Action Layout.
- Action Layout EditorSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
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