Controlling how a field appears | Doghouse SaaS Knowledge Base [Skip to content](#main) [ ![Doghouse SaaS Knowledge Base](/storage/branding/01M3N8PQ7PSDNQBBKKJM6XGW03.svg) ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.districtcms-docs.dh1.amazee.io) [Product documentation](/articles) [Roadmap](/roadmap) Toggle navigation [Product documentation](/articles) [Roadmap](/roadmap) 1. [Home](/) › 2. [Product documentation](/articles) › 3. [Fields & content structure](/articles?category=21) › 4. Controlling how a field appears Controlling how a field appears =============================== Updated 5 days ago · 4 min read Search Search Overview -------- A field has two appearances, and they are set on two different screens. One is what editors see when they fill the item in. The other is what the field is meant to do on the finished page. Screen Controls Manage form display The order of the fields on the editing form, and the kind of control each one uses. Manage display Whether the label shows, and which format the value is output in. > **⚠️ Important:** This is administrator work. Content editors cannot reach either screen. --- The editing form ---------------- Open **Manage form display** on the content type. Each row is a field, and three columns show by default: **Field**, **Machine name** and **Widget**. - Drag a row to move a field up or down. That order is the order editors meet the fields in, so put the things they must fill first at the top. - **Widget** is the control itself. A reference field can be a dropdown or a type ahead box. An image can use the media library. The cog at the end of the row opens that widget's own settings. - To take a field off the form without deleting anything, drag it below the **Disabled** divider in the table. The field and its stored values stay exactly as they are, and you can drag it back. - Some rows are groups rather than fields. On Article, **Tabs**, **Content** and **Banner** are the tabs across the editing form, and a field indented under a tab appears on that tab. ![The Manage form display screen for Article, with the Widget column outlined and the Tabs, Content and Banner groups among the rows.](/storage/Vg7IdNY8tQZ3dh3TKkLdcWz3DhZDr5S0PFoymu1r.png) > **💡 Tip:** Press **Show row weights** above the table if dragging is awkward. Three more columns appear, **Weight**, **Parent** and **Region**, and you can set the order and the disabled state as values instead. They are hidden until you press it. --- The finished page ----------------- Open **Manage display**. It opens on an **Overview** sub-tab listing the type's *view modes*: the different jobs the same content does around the site. Each view mode in use also has a sub-tab of its own. View mode Where it is used Default The item's own full page. Teaser, Teaser (horizontal) and Featured Shorter versions that turn up in listings and on other pages. Search result How the item looks in the site's search results. Not every type has every view mode. Article has **Default**, **Search result**, **Teaser** and **Teaser (horizontal)**. Event has **Default**, **Featured** and **Teaser (horizontal)**. Landing page has **Default** and **Search result**. A field can be set differently in each, which is how a card in a listing shows less than the full page. Change the wrong sub-tab and nothing you expect will move. Press a view mode's sub-tab, or **Manage** beside it on the Overview, to set its fields. The columns are **Field**, **Machine name**, **Label** and **Format**. Column What it sets Label Whether the field's name shows, and where. The choices are **Above**, **Inline**, **- Hidden -** and **- Visually Hidden -**. Format How the value itself is rendered. The choices depend on the kind of field. Format is where the same stored value can be presented in quite different ways. A media field such as **Banner image**, for instance, can be output as the image itself (**Rendered entity**), as a **Thumbnail**, or as just its name (**Label**). ![The Manage display screen for Article on its Overview sub-tab, with the Overview, Default, Search result, Teaser and Teaser (horizontal) sub-tabs outlined.](/storage/K9GVbgg5d6bCzFuP5u7EDqzzxMguwW57t0s0CdoF.png) > **⚠️ Important:** On articles and events, setting a format here does not guarantee anything appears. Each has its own page template, which outputs the fields it was written to output. A field the template does not mention shows nothing, whatever you choose under **Format**, so making a new field public is a template change for a developer. Landing pages have no template of their own and follow this screen. See [**How fields work**](/articles/how-fields-work). --- Edit template on a page ----------------------- When you view a page while signed in as an administrator, the ⋮ **More actions** menu at the top right includes **Edit template** and **Manage display**. Content editors do not see either. ![A page viewed while signed in as an administrator, with the More actions menu open and Edit template outlined above Delete, Manage display, Revisions and Duplicate.](/storage/I7hFjyMOn418i93wM2I9GE4WB2jgmump12osRMfZ.png) Both are shortcuts rather than settings for that page. They open **Manage display** for that kind of content, the same screen described above. > **⚠️ Important:** The other items in that menu, **Delete**, **Revisions** and **Duplicate**, act on the page you are looking at. These two do not. Whatever you change there applies to every page of that type, and there is no way to give a single page its own layout from that screen. --- Visually hidden is not hidden ----------------------------- The two similar sounding label options do different jobs. - **- Hidden -** removes the label for everybody. - **- Visually Hidden -** removes it from the screen but leaves it for screen readers, so the field still makes sense to somebody listening to the page. Prefer **- Visually Hidden -** when the label is obvious from the design but would still help somebody who cannot see it. See [**Using the accessibility checker**](/articles/accessibility-checker). Related articles ------------------ - [ How fields work → ](/articles/how-fields-work) - [ Adding a field to a content type → ](/articles/adding-a-field-to-a-content-type) - [ Removing or changing a field → ](/articles/removing-or-changing-a-field) Was this article helpful? ------------------------- Your feedback helps us prioritise what to rewrite. Yes No [ Back to Fields & content structure ](/articles?category=21) On this page **Need additional help?** Submit a support request through the [**support portal** ](https://doghouse.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals)or email © 2026 [Doghouse SaaS](https://doghouse.agency) [Glossary](/articles/glossary)