How to Create and Use Custom Fields in Dextr

A good contact record helps you remember the details that make the next conversation easier. Custom fields give those details a home: a friend’s coffee order, a client’s project budget, or a date you want to review.

This guide explains how to create a field, add it to a contact, and combine it with other search filters. The dark-mode screenshots use fictional people and sample information. The clips focus on the relevant controls and fields.

What Are Custom Fields?

A custom field is an extra, named piece of information you define for your contacts. The field name describes what you want to remember; the value holds that person’s answer.

For example, create a field named Coffee order, then save Oat milk flat white for Alex. Reuse Coffee order on another contact with their own value. You create the definition once and add it to the people it is useful for.

Use the different tools in Dextr together:

• Custom fields hold a particular detail, such as a budget, preference, date, or yes/no answer.
• Tags group people into categories, such as hiking, prospects, or proposal-sent.
• Relationships describe connections between people.
• Places keep location context connected to your network.
• Notes give you room for the longer story.

Choose the Right Field Type

Dextr supports four custom-field types:

• Text: coffee orders, gift ideas, referral sources, or project stages.
• Number: budgets, quantities, or scores. Choose number, currency, or percentage formatting, with automatic or specified decimal places. For currency, choose the currency code.
• Date: a review date or another calendar date you want to keep with a person.
• Yes/No: a clear answer to a question, such as whether an NDA is signed.

Choose the type before adding values to contacts. Once a field has assignments, its type is locked. If you need a different type later, create a replacement field.

Create a Custom Field

1. Open Settings, then Custom Fields.
2. Tap + to open New Custom Field.
3. Give the field a clear name, such as Coffee order or Project budget.
4. Choose its Type. If you choose Number, set the number format and any decimal or currency options.
5. Add an optional description to explain what belongs in the field.
6. Confirm with the checkmark to save.

You can also create a field while editing a contact: in Custom Fields, choose New Field. To reuse a definition you have already created, choose Add Existing instead.

Add a Value to a Contact

1. Open the person and enter editing mode. Scroll to Custom Fields, or use that section’s edit control when it is visible.
2. Choose Add Existing and select a field, or New Field for a new definition.
3. Enter the text or number, choose a date, or set the yes/no answer.
4. Save your contact edits with the confirmation checkmark.

Return to the person’s Custom Fields section to read or update the information. Reuse the same field across contacts so you do not end up with several names for the same detail.

Personal Example: Remember the Small Things

Alex Rivera likes an oat milk flat white and weekend trail walks. Saving those details means you can suggest a catch-up that feels thoughtful without relying on memory.

In this example, Alex has:

• Coffee order: Oat milk flat white
• Favorite activity: Weekend trail walks
• Gift budget: $50
• Vegetarian: Yes

The text fields preserve the specifics. The number and yes/no fields also give you useful search comparisons. For a group outing, add tags for shared interests and keep relationship and location details up to date.

Record preferences people have shared with you, and refresh them when they change.

Professional Example: Keep Useful Context With the Person

Maya Chen is a creative director at Northstar Studio. A few fields help you prepare before the next conversation:

• Project stage: Proposal sent
• Project budget: $24,000
• Referral source: Design Leadership Summit
• Next review: a calendar date
• NDA signed: Yes

The currency format makes the budget easy to read. The date gives the review its own structured value, and the yes/no field makes the NDA status explicit.

A date field stores a date; create a reminder separately if you want a follow-up notification. If you want to filter by a particular project stage, a consistent tag such as proposal-sent is useful alongside the text field.

Build a Search With Multiple Parameters

Search becomes more useful when you combine several pieces of context. Instead of remembering someone’s name, you can look for people who match a custom field, a tag, a relationship, and a location.

1. Open Search.
2. Type a custom field’s name, such as Project budget.
3. Under Filters, select the matching suggestion. This adds a filter to the search.
4. Choose its condition. For a number field, select a comparison and enter the amount; for a date field, choose a date comparison and date.
5. Type the next field name, tag, relationship, or location and select its filter suggestion.
6. Repeat to build the combination you need, then review the people in the results.

Selecting a suggestion turns it into a filter. Simply typing several labels as one sentence does not build the same structured search.

The selected criteria work together: a matching person must satisfy all of them. Start with one filter and add the others gradually, so you can see how each narrows the results.

What Can You Filter on a Custom Field?

The field’s type determines its available conditions:

• Any supported type: Is Set or Is Not Set.
• Text: Is Set or Is Not Set. These check whether the person has a value for that field; they do not compare the text to a word or phrase.
• Number: equal, not equal, greater than, greater than or equal, less than, or less than or equal.
• Date: on, not on, before, on or before, after, or on or after a selected date.
• Yes/No: Yes or No, as well as whether the field is set.

Is Not Set and No mean different things. A missing answer is not the same as an explicitly saved No.

Personal Search Example

To plan a vegetarian-friendly outing, combine Vegetarian = Yes with an existing hiking tag. Add a relationship filter such as Friend and a location filter such as Chicago, using the matching suggestions available in your data.

This finds people whose saved information fits the whole combination. A Coffee order — Is Set filter can further narrow the group to people whose order you have recorded.

Professional Search Example

To review larger proposals, combine Project budget ≥ 10,000 with a proposal-sent tag. Add your relevant relationship filter and a location filter to focus on the right part of your network.

You can also use NDA signed = Yes, or add Next review with a date comparison. Select a number or date field again to add a second comparison—for example, a budget of at least 10,000 and at most 30,000.

Location filters depend on the location information saved in Dextr. Choose the intended city, region, or country suggestion. If you mean where you first met someone, use the separate First Met Place field and its available conditions.

Save a Useful Search and Keep Fields Consistent

When an eligible combination is ready, tap Save and give it a useful name. Saved searches let you return to the same criteria as contact information changes. Advanced Search access is required to save searches and to add more than three filters; Dextr shows the access required for your plan. Custom Fields also has its own access requirement.

Keep field names short and specific. Reuse existing definitions, choose one currency for a budget field, and avoid comparing amounts recorded in different currencies as though they were equivalent.

Start with one personal detail and one professional detail you often forget. Add them to a few contacts, then build a search that helps you decide who to reconnect with next.

For more context, see organizing contacts with tags, connecting relationships, and using places.