Re-ranking custom fields on the agent screen

Once you have a few custom fields on a list, the next question is layout. Every Custom field you create lands on the agent's Form tab, and the order they appear in is not random. Three settings decide it: New Field Rank, Field Order, and the Re-Rank Fields Below option. Get these right and your Agent reads the form naturally, top to bottom, exactly the way you'd want them to ask a customer questions.

Rank sets the vertical position

New Field Rank controls how far down the page a field sits. Rank 1 is at the very top, and the numbers grow as you go down. So a field at rank 1 appears above a field at rank 2, which appears above rank 3, and so on. If you ever want to slot a new field above an existing one, give it a lower rank number.

There's a small twist. Two fields with the same rank share a row, sitting side by side on the same line. That's how you put, say, a city field next to a state field instead of stacking them. Which one lands on the left is decided by the next setting.

Field Order sets left-to-right within a row

When several fields share a rank, Field Order decides their position across that row. Field Order 1 sits all the way to the left, and higher numbers move toward the right. So a row of three fields might be order 1, 2, and 3 reading left to right. Combine rank and order and you can build a tidy grid: rank groups the rows, order arranges each row.

How the layout settings combine

flowchart TD
  A[New custom field] --> B[New Field Rank]
  B --> C{Same rank as another field?}
  C -->|No| D[Field gets its own row]
  C -->|Yes| E[Fields share a row]
  E --> F[Field Order sorts left to right]
  D --> G[Form tab layout]
  F --> G

Re-Rank Fields Below saves manual shuffling

Inserting a field into the middle of an existing form used to mean renumbering everything below it by hand. The Re-Rank Fields Below option fixes that. Set it to YES while creating a field, and every existing field at an equal or lower rank automatically shifts down by one place to make room. The default is NO, which leaves the rest of your form untouched. Use YES when you're squeezing a new field into a crowded form and don't want to renumber the rest yourself.

For the full picture of how custom fields fit alongside lists and leads, read the VICIdial lists and leads guide, and if you're choosing between input styles, the rundown of custom field types pairs well with layout planning.

A clean, well-ordered Form tab keeps a Campaign moving and reduces agent mistakes. If you'd rather run all this on a managed box that's live in under 40 seconds, check our pricing and start with a clean server.