In some situations—usually if you've imported data into an application—QuickBase may create "placeholder" values in user fields. A User field is a special type of field that stores references to QuickBase users. For example, if you're using an application to manage projects, you'd probably want to a way to assign tasks to the actual people who use your application. To solve this problem, you'd include a field called Assigned To and designate its type as "user field." This field would display a dropdown list of your actual QuickBase application users. Whenever you share your application with someone new, the program adds that person to the list.
Say you conduct an import to add records to a table that contains a user field. You might think that the data you're importing has a user field, but QuickBase may not be able to recognize the values as your application users. For instance, if one field has a value like "Harriet" you may know that value represents your boss, Harriet Kopekne, but QuickBase has no way of knowing. When possible, QuickBase actually does try to match values, but often the source data isn't helpful enough.
In these situations, QuickBase can't leave the user field blank, so it inserts a placeholder value in this field. You can easily identify a placeholder by the double-quotes that surround it. If you see a value with quotes like "Harriet" appear in your user list, you need to take action.
When you see placeholders in your user field, you should designate a real QuickBase user for that value. To learn how, read about converting placeholders.
Tip: If you're importing values that are also people who'll use your QuickBase application, import those values into a User type field. (Read more about user fields.) When you're importing into User fields, you can import text or—if you've got them—email addresses. When you import text into a User field, QuickBase creates placeholders that you can later convert to user values. If you import email addresses, QuickBase can immediately match a value with the QuickBase user who's registered with that email address. So, if you can, try importing email addresses instead of user names. You'll save time later.
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