Limit the fields a role or person sees

Narrow a Viewer's access to chosen fields of a table from its Share sheet, so a role such as Support reads the records without the columns it should not see.

Sometimes a role needs a table but not all of it. Support needs each customer's name and phone number, not their credit limit. A field limit lets a Viewer read only the fields you tick.

Set a limit

Open the table's Share sheet (see Share a table or view).
If the role or person is not listed yet, add them as Viewer.
Under their row, open Recipients see every column.
In What recipients see, untick the fields they should not see.

The limit is saved when the list closes, and the button then reads, for example, Recipients see 5 of 7 columns. To give the whole table back, tick every field again.

What a limit does

They read only the ticked fields, and the record's key. That holds everywhere they read the table: the grid, the table's list of fields, exports, what another table shows through a link to this one, and what an assistant reads when it acts as them.
A field added to the table later stays hidden from them until you tick it.
Limits add up. Someone with two roles, both limited on the table, sees the fields of both.
A limit narrows one way in, not the others. If the person can also read the table with no limit, through a grant of their own or through another role such as User, they see every field.
Super Admins are never limited.

An Editor's row that was limited some other way, for example by an app you installed, has no picker and reads Sees 4 of 9 fields instead.

Only a Viewer can be limited to some fields. An Editor's row offers no field limit, because an Editor's changes are not limited by field. To let a group change only some fields, give them a view whose Included fields leaves the others out, and share the view instead of the table (see Views).

A limit or a view?

Use a field limit when a role needs the table as it is, minus a few columns. Use a view when they need fewer rows as well, a different order, or the right to change records: a view carries its own fields, filter and Changes allowed, and a role given the view never reaches the table behind it.

Links have the same column picker: see Share links.