Field-Level Help
Field-Level Help is custom help text that administrators can add to any standard or custom field, displayed as a small help icon next to the field label on record detail and edit pages.
Definition
Field-Level Help is custom help text that administrators can add to any standard or custom field, displayed as a small help icon next to the field label on record detail and edit pages. When users hover over or click the icon, the help text appears, providing guidance on the field's purpose, expected format, or business rules. It supports up to 255 characters of plain text.
In plain English
“Field-Level Help is the little help icon next to a field that shows custom guidance when users hover over it. Admins write the help text to explain what the field is for, what format to use, or any business rules. It's a quick way to give users context without filling support tickets.”
Worked example
The admin at Manx Marine, a marine-equipment retailer, adds Field-Level Help to every custom field on the Service Order object. The Hull_Length__c field has a help icon that says "Length in feet from bow to stern, measured at the waterline. Use feet not meters." When new service techs hover the field, they see the guidance - no longer needing to ask the supervisor what the field actually means. After the field-level help is added, the data-quality dashboard shows fewer outlier values (a field labeled 12.5 no longer mixes 12.5 feet with 12.5 meters). Field-Level Help is admin-side documentation that travels with the field forever.
Why Field-Level Help matters
Field-Level Help is admin-defined help text that can be added to any standard or custom field, displayed as a small help icon next to the field label on record detail and edit pages. When users hover over or click the icon, the help text appears, providing guidance on the field's purpose, expected format, or business rules. It supports up to 255 characters of plain text and is configured per field in Setup.
Field-Level Help is one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact improvements an admin can make to a Salesforce org. Users naturally have questions about fields ('what does this mean?', 'what should I put here?', 'is this required?'), and Field-Level Help answers them in context without requiring a support ticket. Mature orgs treat Field-Level Help as part of the standard custom field creation process: every new field gets help text before it goes to production. The result is fewer support tickets, better data quality, and faster user onboarding.
How organizations use Field-Level Help
Adds Field-Level Help to every clinical field explaining data entry requirements and clinical context. The help text dramatically reduced 'what goes in this field?' tickets.
Treats Field-Level Help as a required step in their custom field creation process. No new field goes to production without it.
Uses Field-Level Help to communicate business rules that can't be enforced through validation, like 'use sentence case for Account names'.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is Field-Level Help?
Q2. What's the character limit on Field-Level Help?
Q3. Why is Field-Level Help considered high-leverage?
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