Define the Set Name of the Field Set (this isn’t the title of the field itself, just the “box” it’s in). In this case, we are going to collect the interest groups specific to a membership, so we will call the Field Set “Membership Speciality Groups”.

Now we say what the Field Set is Used For. This “Used For” option states what CiviPlus record type new fields will be attached to - remember, all custom fields have to be associated with a particular record type. In this case since we are adding custom fields to a membership record we will select “Membership - Any”. This means that the Field Set will appear for ANY membership type, you can restrict this to a specific membership type by selecting it rather than “Any”.

Now, you can specify the Order of this Field Set. Don’t worry too much about this field, you can normally use the default value that the system assigns. The “Order” simply says the order in which each Field Set is presented when there are more than one associated with a particular Record Type.

The next field to consider is Does this Custom Field Set allow multiple records? Checking this box allows you to enter multiple sets of values (records) for a given contact, so for example if you were creating a set of custom fields to collect relevant membership employment history you might have fields for Job Title, Start Date, End Date, and Reason for Leaving. By checking the "multiple records" box you could collect this information for multiple jobs. If you select this feature, you can then also set the Maximum number of multiple records which can be recorded per contact. Using the previous example, you might only want data for the three most recent jobs.
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​CAUTION: The following features are NOT available for custom fields in 'multiple record' custom set:

The Display Style option is used to decide how the Field Set will be displayed. “Inline” will include this set of fields in the main membership screens, whereas “Tab” or “Tab with Table” (if multiple records are enabled) creates a separate navigation tab for display and editing these values. These later options are generally used for less frequently accessed and/or larger sets of fields.

There are now 4 options that control how the fields are initially displayed, and who can see them:

Now you have the option to add explanatory text displayed at the beginning and/or end of this set of fields. You can use the rich text editor to create engaging content which can help users when they are completing the sets of fields, including linked to external material that you may wish them to view

Once you have completed the Field Set form, click the SAVE button and you can then start adding the individual fields. An example of what the completed form might look like is shown below:
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Give the Field Label a meaningful value. This is what will be shown to a user when entering data, and is what will be used within reports, searches etc. In this instance, as there is only one field in the Field Set we’ll use the same name “Membership Speciality Groups”

You should have already decided what Data Type this field is, for our example it’s an “Alphanumeric” field.

Now we want to provide a list of possible Speciality Groups that this member is interested in, so we’ll choose “Drop-down (Select list)” for the Field Input Type field, and because this person might be in a number of different groups we’ll check the Multi-Select option.

The Display in Table option allows you to decide whether this particular field will appear in any table/list representation of multiple contacts. If the custom field is not really important you may choose not to have it displayed otherwise you can end up with a very wide table that is difficult to navigate. Of course, all the fields will appear in an individual membership record.

The Database Field Length allows you to specify the number of characters that this field will contain. Generally speaking you should use the default.

Since we have said that this field is a drop-down list we can either create and manage a list of valid picklist options within the field (set Option Type to “Create a new set of options”), or you can select an existing set of options which you've already created for another custom field (set Option Type to “Reuse an existing set”). We will pick the former in this example, and so will need to enter each of the valid picklist options.

To do this, in the Multiple Choice Options field you provide the following for each option:

You can keep adding picklist choices by clicking on the +add another choice link.
​Note: You can only add up to 10 choices when first creating the drop-list field. Once it has been created you can go back and edit it to add any number of additional choices,

You use the Order field to specify the order in which this particular field should appear in the list of fields within the Field Set.

Now you have the option to add explanatory text displayed at the beginning and/or end of this fields. You can use the rich text editor to create engaging content which can help users when they are completing the field, including linked to external material that you may wish them to view

The Required? Field says whether a value has to be entered into the field before the record can be saved.

You’ll almost certainly want to be able to search on this custom field (for example, to create a group of members who are interested in Theatre), check Is this Field Searchable?.

You can make the field invisible by unchecking the Active? field. Any field values already stored would be retained, but just “hidden”.

And lastly View Only? This is hardly ever used, but if you have a field that is populated via an API rather than via the screen you can use this option so that users can not enter a value directly.

The screenshot below shows what the Membership Speciality Groups custom field would look like. You can click + SAVE AND NEW to save this new field and start creating another one, or just SAVE.
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And finally, this is what the custom field would look like when creating a new membership:
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