I’m an Airtable user looking to switch, and I’m very interested in Grist (though I’m just getting started). Right now, I’m completely confused by this:
Even after checking the Grist documentation and other resources, I still don’t understand the difference between a table, a page, and a widget.
When I create a table, do I automatically create a page? A widget? Neither?
What do I need to do if I just want to create a table?
I started watching the introductory video, but unfortunately, it doesn’t cover this. Shoud be adressed because it’s really unclear and confusing… for now at least.
But first, a specific issue: I tried importing data by connecting directly with Airtable, and in most of my attempts, the imported table failed to bring over the most important field—the primary field (even though it’s just a single line of text—the simplest kind, in other words…).
Thanks in advance for suggestion and help!
As for the terminology, it does get a bit confusing with all the other apps. Here’s my Airtable comparison:
A Grist page is like an Airtable table, where the top tabs are transposed to the left-hand panel.
A Grist table refers to the underlying data table (visible in the raw data page).
A widget is like an Airtable view, pulling data from an underlying source table and displaying it on a page. Using the generic term, a widget presents a “view” of data (i.e. you can show/hide columns in a widget without deleting the source columns; likewise you can filter a widget without filtering the source data). The one wrinkle is that one of the types of widgets is a “table widget”, which is just a view of data in standard grid.
As for the import issue, do you have any more specifics on the “primary field”. Is it a text field?
Thank you for your reply!
Still confusing for me, because in the panel on the left the elements are called “Workspaces” and not “Pages”.
Should I perhaps create my data in the Raw Data part, so as not to have to deal with these “Pages” elements and directly create tables without asking me any questions?
Ok for the Widget element, the analogy with the View is now clearer, thank you!
The primary field in Airtable is the main element in Airtable table.
It can be of different types, but as I said, in my import tests it was the simplest form: a simple line of text.
I will resume Grist’s video introduction / webinar anyway!
Thanks again.