> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.qrtub.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Allowed Values

> The fixed list of value, label and color options authored on a Text or List field, which turns it into a picker and colors the matching chip everywhere the field is shown.

Allowed Values is a fixed list of literal values you author on the field itself. Give a field
a list and it stops being a free-text box and becomes a picker, with each option carrying its
own color. The values belong to this field — a field that instead points at another record
and shows *that* record's data is a
[Reference field](/fields/reference-fields), which never uses an allowed-values list.

Allowed Values is available on **Text** and **List** fields only. On any other type the field
editor says so and offers no list.

## Adding values to a field

1. Open the Collection's settings and go to the **Fields** tab.
2. Click the chip for the field you want, then **Manage Allowed Values**.
3. Type the option's text under **Add Value**, pick a color, and press **Add**. A preview
   chip shows what it will look like.
4. Press **Save changes** on the settings form. Until you do, the list is not saved.

Each option is stored as three things:

* **Value** — what is actually written onto the Item. Generated from what you typed,
  lowercased with spaces turned into underscores: "In Repair" becomes `in_repair`.
* **Label** — what people see in the picker and on the Item. This keeps your capitals and
  spacing: "In Repair".
* **Color** — the color of the chip for that option.

Because the value is the part that gets stored, it is also the part you write in conditions
and URL templates: `item.status == "in_repair"`, not `"In Repair"`.

## Colors are configured once and apply everywhere

The color on each option is not just decoration in the picker. It is the color of that
value's chip wherever the field is rendered:

* in the Items table,
* on the scanned Page, for Tags and for a Banner section bound to that field.

So a status of `overdue` set to red shows red in your Items table and red on the page a
customer scans, without configuring it twice.

The match is on the stored value, exactly. If an Item holds a value that is not on the list —
usually because it was imported, or typed in while
[Allow New Values](/fields/allow-new-values) was on — it still displays, but with no color,
because there is no option to take a color from.

## Changing or removing an option

Editing the list changes the list, not the Items. Removing an option leaves any Item that
already holds that value untouched: the value stays on the Item, but it is no longer offered
in the picker and no longer has a color. Changing an option's color reaches every Item at
once, since the color was never stored on the Item in the first place.

There is no rename for an option's stored value. Adding a replacement and removing the old
one leaves existing Items holding the old value, so re-pick those Items or re-import them.

## How strict is the list?

By default, strict: the picker offers only what is on the list, and a CSV import rejects any
row with a value that is not on it. That strictness is controlled by a single per-field
toggle, and switching it on changes both the form and the import — see
[Allow New Values](/fields/allow-new-values).

## Related

* [Allow New Values](/fields/allow-new-values)
* [Reference Fields](/fields/reference-fields)
* [Custom Field Types](/fields/field-types)
* [Tags](/items/tags)