idea Setting to disable field aliases in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Setting to disable field aliases

MarianneCardwell — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 17:55:49 GMT

Add a setting to Pro (under "Table") to show field names instead of field aliases by default. It's tedious to change it manually for each table.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

JoeBorgione — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 15:04:11 GMT

I've never been a fan of aliases!

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

AZendel — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 15:13:51 GMT

Please implement this, ESRI! Case in point, I did a spatial join between two feature classes with some fields that have the same name. So the output table has NumSFR and NumSFR_1. The '_1' tips me off as two which feature class the field came from.

These setting should be applied to:

The 'attribute table' view
The 'attributes' view
"Identify tool" (clicking a feature with the navigate tool)
Geoprocessing tools (Calcuate field, Merge, Append, etc)

It'd be ideal for people to specify this setting for each project, not all projects. But if it can only be one, I want the latter.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

MarianneCardwell — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:22:44 GMT

I agree with everything you suggested AZendel!

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

PegGronemeyer1 — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 21:05:43 GMT

Thank you whoever submitted this! I honestly thought I was losing my mind trying a simple merge... why were there so many fields with the same name?? And why were the switch from alias to fieldname NOT staying. Over 3 hours on a simple merge... so back to ArcMap I go for the merge

I agree with OP in that I rarely use aliases and if so it is for other people who will see the data.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

MicheleH_DNReply — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 01:08:49 GMT

Also - why is the filter button (to turn off aliases) missing from the Dissolve tool? If this is the current way of doing it why isn't it in every geoprocessing tool?
If you don't want to make this setting part of the options could the geoprocessing tools (all of them) not follow whatever you have set in the attribute table? Turn them off in the attribute table for a particular layer and see real field names in the geoprocessing tool.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

KoryKramer — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 14:24:08 GMT

@MicheleH_DNReply Coming in ArcGIS Pro 3.1 scheduled to be released in a couple of days:

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

MicheleH1_DNReply — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 19:15:15 GMT

Thanks Kory. Good to know.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

Alison_Mynsberge — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:17:39 GMT

I agree that the ability to show field names instead of aliases on the Identify tool is important for those of us who use Map for spot-checking data when scripting, and not for generic point-and-click attribute review.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

NormB — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 15:10:50 GMT

Yes, Turn them off by default.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

KoryKramer — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 15:15:17 GMT

Hi @NormB Be sure to add your Kudos since this is an idea. Thanks

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

Matt-Goodman — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 14:15:56 GMT

When I'm browsing tables in the Catalog view, I'd like to be able to browse through the actual field names within all the tables I'm skimming through. I understand that I can mouse-hover over any given field to see the actual name, but this isn't practical when trying to skim through big schemas. Being able to set a user's system default (either to alias, or actual) would be highly beneficial.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

CarlAlbury — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:33:09 GMT

Like others, I would much rather have the actual field name be the default display in all situations.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

SteveMac — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:33:37 GMT

Please add this has a default option in Pro settings. As others have mentioned, when browsing LOTS of tables in Catalog View, it would be nice to have the actual field names default (and not have to hover over every field...). Seems like a very small change, so please add! 🙂

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

SavannahRoybal — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:42:34 GMT

This drives me insane every time I need to join datasets. Please fix this 🙏

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

paulaedwards2 — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 21:25:55 GMT

Did I miss the fix? I'm in Pro 3.5 and still don't see a way to toggle off the aliases. I don't want to have to go in and remove over 100+ aliases individually. We have to keep the data we're working in a specific data model and don't want to remove anything from the customer's original data model. But I need to see the actual feature names in gdb in my content pane, not the aliases. I'd also prefer the attribute tables to only show field names by default and if you want aliases you can select that option. Is there a setting I can change in the project's options?

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

MatthewSackrison — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 16:46:38 GMT

In addition to all the excellent points already made here in the comments, if you do go through the laborious process of switching it manually on each of your layers, those settings do not save to either .lyrx or .mapx files, which means you need to use an .aprx as a template if you want to maintain that. With no Production Views (equivalency request for that to be added to Pro was rejected because "you can use Maps to symbolize the same data differently") this means any alternative symbology sets you want to maintain these in settings in need to be also stored as Maps within an aprx. With the number of layers we work with the more Maps you've opened in an .aprx the slower Pro runs and the more likely it seems to stop showing edit changes to the geometry until you wipe the display cache.

Re: Setting to disable field aliases

ChelseaRozek — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:54:13 GMT

Please let us set the default for these two options in Pro's settings: Show Field Aliases and Show Domain and Subtype Descriptions

When writing Python and using Field Calculator, I want to be able to see the actual values in the fields. It's a hassle to keep toggling both of these settings off each time.