Adding Object Notes to the Highlights Panel

The Highlights Panel in Salesforce Lightning is a great way to quickly see useful information about the record without having to dig deeper.  There are limitations to the panel as you can only add 5 fields plus the record name (e.g., Account, Contact, etc.).  There is also a limitation that Text Area fields cannot be used to display in the panel nor can they be used in a formula.

To get Notes into the Highlights Panel, you can use the Process Builder to update a field with the first 100 characters of the Notes for display.  This display field can then be used on any object’s Highlights Panel and also in Views.

1. Go to Set Up –> Object Manager and select the object to edit. We will use the Account object for this example.
2. Go to Fields & Relationships and create a text 100 character text field. The field can be displayed on the page or hidden.
3. Next, go to Process Builder and create a New Process with the following:
   1. Trigger on New Accounts or when the Description (Notes) are updated.
   2. Create an Action that will update the Notes Display field you created with the following formula

Left(Account.Decription, 100)

1. 1. Save and Activate the process

4. Next, go to Set Up –> Object Manager –> <Object> –> Compact Layouts and select the layout to edit.  If there are none to choose from, create a new one.
5. Click the Edit
6. Remove fields to display from the list on the right and add fields to display from the list on the left. This is where you will add your new Notes display field.
7. Click the Save button and refresh the record. You will see your changes in the Highlights Panel
8. Test the process by editing the Description of a current record and then adding a new record with notes to make sure all is updating.