Ever wonder how to get those cool looking images such as the stop lights and colored flags to display statuses in Salesforce?  Well, they are actually formula fields (image formulas, to be exact) and this month we are going to provide you with the steps required to build them.

Essentially, displaying these images requires a couple of steps: saving the images you want to display within the Documents tab in Salesforce, and building the formula that references them. Suppose, for example, I have a check box field called “Credit Hold”. When this field is checked, I want to display a warning image on the screen.  The first thing I’ll do is save the warning image to the documents tab:

Next, it’s time to build the formula that references the image we just saved.  I navigate through the Setup menu to create a new custom formula field on my Accounts object called “Credit Hold Indicator”, using the output type of Text. This new will reference my Credit Hold check box field and display my image when it is checked. Here is a snapshot of my formula:

The reference to the image comes from the URL of the image itself. From the image record within the Documents tab, I simply copy/paste the Id of the Document record into my formula as highlighted above.

I save my formula, and here are my results:

May seem a little complicated for new users, but trust us, once you get through the first couple they are a breeze and the use cases for these are endless!