Related List Hover Links
Related List Hover Links are clickable shortcuts that appear in a strip at the top of a record detail page in Salesforce Classic.
Definition
Related List Hover Links are clickable shortcuts that appear in a strip at the top of a record detail page in Salesforce Classic. Each link represents one related list on the page, such as Contacts, Opportunities, or Open Activities. When the feature is on, an admin does not have to scroll a long record to reach a given related list.
A user can hover the mouse over a link to open the matching related list inside a small interactive overlay, then view or manage its records right there. Clicking the same link jumps the page down to the full related list instead. The feature is a Salesforce Classic setting. Lightning Experience covers the same need with the Related List Quick Links component, so hover links are now mostly a legacy and migration topic.
How hover links behave on a Classic record page
What the hover link strip actually shows
On a Classic detail page, the related lists sit stacked below the record fields. A busy Account can carry a dozen or more of them. Related List Hover Links collapse that stack into a single row of links near the top of the page, just under the detail section. Each link is named after one related list on the layout, and the set of links follows the order of related lists defined in the page layout. The links are not a separate object or a custom build. They are a rendering option that Salesforce turns on for every standard and custom object detail page once the org-wide setting is enabled. So the same row appears on Accounts, Contacts, Cases, and any custom object, without per-layout work. Because the links mirror the layout, hiding a related list on the layout also removes its hover link. This tight coupling is the reason admins manage the link list through page layouts rather than through a dedicated hover-link screen.
Hover to preview, click to jump
The links support two distinct actions, and new admins often miss the difference. Moving the pointer over a link opens an overlay that floats above the page. That overlay holds the related list itself, with its columns, its rows, and its standard buttons such as New or Edit. A user can read records and act on them inside the overlay, without losing their place on the parent record. Clicking the link does something else. It scrolls the page straight down to the full related list lower on the detail page, the same list the user would reach by scrolling manually. So the hover gives a quick peek and inline action, while the click is a navigation shortcut. On a record with many related lists, that pairing saved a real amount of scrolling, which is why support and console agents in Classic relied on it during fast case work.
Where the setting lives and what it controls
Related List Hover Links is one checkbox on the User Interface settings page in Setup. In Salesforce Classic the path runs through Setup, then Customize, then User Interface. The checkbox is labeled Enable Related List Hover Links. It is an organization-wide switch, so turning it on affects every user and every object detail page at once. There is no per-profile or per-record-type version of this particular toggle. The same User Interface page carries a separate but easy-to-confuse option called Enable Hover Details. That one controls the small record preview shown when a user points at a record name in a list or at a lookup field. Hover Details is about previewing a single record, while Hover Links is about reaching related lists. The fields shown inside a Hover Details preview come from the object mini page layout. Knowing both settings live on the same screen helps when an admin is auditing why an overlay does or does not appear.
The mini page layout connection
Hover behavior in Classic leans on the mini page layout, and the relationship trips people up. The interactive overlay that opens from a hover link shows a related list using that list's configured columns. The hover preview of a single record, the one tied to the Enable Hover Details setting, instead pulls its fields from the object mini page layout. A mini page layout is a trimmed field set defined inside the standard page layout, originally built for the Classic console and for hover previews. So an admin tuning what appears on hover may need to edit two different things. Columns in a related list overlay come from the related list section of the page layout. Fields in a single-record hover come from the mini page layout. If a hover preview shows the wrong fields or too many, the mini page layout is the place to fix it. This split is a Classic-era design and does not carry forward cleanly into Lightning, which is one more reason the topic is treated as legacy.
Why the feature is now legacy
Salesforce continues to support Salesforce Classic, but new feature investment and most customer rollouts center on Lightning Experience. Related List Hover Links is a Classic-only rendering setting. It does not appear in Lightning record pages, because Lightning builds record pages through the Lightning App Builder rather than through the Classic detail-page renderer. An org that has moved users to Lightning will not see the hover link strip at all, regardless of the User Interface checkbox. That is why most teams treat the term as background knowledge. It still matters when you support an org that runs Classic, when you read older documentation or console setups, or when you plan a migration and need to reproduce the navigation users expect. The practical guidance is to learn what the links did, then map that behavior to the Lightning equivalent rather than building new Classic customization around them.
The Lightning equivalent: Related List Quick Links
Lightning Experience delivers the same idea through a standard component called Related List Quick Links. An admin drops it onto a record page in the Lightning App Builder, usually in a side region near the highlights panel. The component renders a compact set of links, one per related list, and supports the familiar pattern. A user hovers a link to open the related list in an overlay, or clicks it to jump to that related list on the page. The behavior is close enough that users moving from Classic recognize it quickly. The configuration is different, though. In Lightning the links come from the Lightning record page and its related list components, not from a single org-wide checkbox. That means an admin controls placement and visibility per page assignment, which is more flexible than the all-or-nothing Classic switch. When recreating Classic navigation during a migration, adding Related List Quick Links to the relevant Lightning pages is the direct replacement for enabling hover links.
Enable Related List Hover Links in Salesforce Classic
You enable Related List Hover Links once for the whole org from the User Interface settings in Salesforce Classic. After that, every standard and custom object detail page shows the link strip. The steps below cover turning it on and confirming the result.
- Open User Interface settings
In Salesforce Classic, go to Setup, then Customize, then User Interface. This page holds the org-wide display options for Classic pages.
- Enable the hover links checkbox
Find the option named Enable Related List Hover Links and select its checkbox. The change applies to all users and all object detail pages.
- Save the page
Click Save at the bottom of the User Interface settings page so the setting takes effect across the org.
- Verify on a record
Open any record with several related lists, such as an Account. Confirm the link strip appears near the top, then hover one link to check the overlay and click another to confirm the jump.
The checkbox that turns the link strip on for every Classic object detail page in the org.
A separate checkbox on the same page that controls single-record preview overlays from list and lookup hovers, sourced from the mini page layout.
Edit each object page layout to set which related lists appear and in what order, since the hover links mirror that layout.
- The setting is Salesforce Classic only. Users working in Lightning Experience will not see hover links no matter how the checkbox is set.
- It is org-wide, with no per-profile control. You cannot enable hover links for one team and not another.
- Do not confuse Enable Related List Hover Links with Enable Hover Details. The first reaches related lists; the second previews a single record from its mini page layout.
- For Lightning orgs, add the Related List Quick Links component in the Lightning App Builder instead of relying on this Classic switch.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Related List Hover Links in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- User Interface SettingsSalesforce
- Customize Related ListsSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Related List Hover Links.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Related List Hover Links.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. In which Salesforce interface do Related List Hover Links appear?
Q2. What do Related List Hover Links let a Classic user do without scrolling?
Q3. How does Lightning Experience handle the navigation that Related List Hover Links provided in Classic?
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