Forum Discussion
Why Is SharePoint’s Priority Column Free Text and Not a Choice Field?
While https://bluesite.consulting/en-us/articles/sharepoint-site-template-projecthome-review.html, I noticed something unusual in the work action tracker list—a column setting that seemed out of place. Specifically, the Priority column isn't set up as a typical choice column with selectable options. Instead, the available choices are entered as free text in a single text field (left image)
I saw this years ago in the old SharePoint. where options for a choice column are defined within a text field rather than as a standard list of choices (right image). Does anyone know why this might be happening or what could be causing this behavior?
- The template comes with some JSON formatting pre-applied on the choice pills (icons in this case). - Because of that, the GUI based choice editor does not work from column settings pane. To still format the pills, you can go inside format this column option > switch to design mode and you can use the "normal" pills-designer. - Best, Dave 
3 Replies
- i have created a Issue tracker list with the Microsoft default list template and have the same behaviour, but only in the column Priority, not in others like Status. I have never seen this behavior either, but I don't use the list templates and create my own custom lists. - When you create your own Priority column, you can configure it like you did a year ago. - Best, Dave - The template comes with some JSON formatting pre-applied on the choice pills (icons in this case). - Because of that, the GUI based choice editor does not work from column settings pane. To still format the pills, you can go inside format this column option > switch to design mode and you can use the "normal" pills-designer. - Best, Dave - Dennis-ScherrerBrass ContributorThank you DaveMehr365 Creating your own list or site templates is a good choice for large enterprises with people having expertise and the resources. I think some of Microsoft´s templates are quite useful - you sometimes just need to fix or update some thinks. I´ve added this to the article https://bluesite.consulting/en-us/articles/sharepoint-site-template-projecthome-review.html#issue-tracker-list-quickfix