Philosophical Question: Status vs Dropdown Column Type

I’m hoping a few of you will weigh in on the use of Status versus Dropdown column types. I understand the traditional use (e.g., in process, done, etc.) but what’s your opinion on using either S or D for things like program the item is associated with or which strategic initiative the item is most related to)? What factors do you consider when deciding? I’ve not found any info on that. Thanks in advance for sharing.

hi @jane.martel

The big difference is that a status label can hold just one status (like “Done”) and is good to use as process step. When you are looking for a column that hold multiple labels the Dropdown is the way to go (e.g. when an item is part of multiple initiatives).

The Status column is limited to 40 different statuses (colors). However there are more automations available that trigger on Status column changes.

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I see. Thank you! That helps.

I find status is generally much easier to manipulate on dashboards for reporting purposes too, primarily because it is a forced one status selection and won’t duplicate/stack data in dashboard charts.

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