No one really seems to enjoy multi-value picklists (MVPs). Like many things in the ecosystem, while it seems great in theory, it adds complications in practice. Even Salesforce recently added a warning message before you create one.
So what are the alternatives to MVPs? Here are two viable options:
1. Multiple checkboxes
If there are only a few choices, then a simple group of checkboxes works well. And by “a few”, I meant less than 5. Anything more and it becomes unwelding.
Checkboxes are easy to set, easy to report on, and can be placed in one section on the page.
2. Related object
If there are currently more than 5 choices (or there may be more than 5 in the future), option 2 is a better choice.
This means creating a custom object to list the values available. Let’s call this object “Field Options” (FO). FO can also be used for multiple fields.
Then consider adding the following fields:
- Name (for the label)
- Field Name (text, used to filter options across fields)
- Active (checkbox)
Then create a junction object, with one lookup to FO and another to the original object.
To simplify the user interface, you can add a screen flow which gets all active choices from FO for the target field and displays them in a datatable. The currently selected choices should be autoset.
The user can then easily set or unset checkboxes, and the screen flow adds or deletes the related records from the junction object.
The takeaway
Rather than use multi-value picklists, consider using a few checkboxes or a related list. Each have pros and cons, and make sure to keep the user experience simple.