You need to tweak a form layout for how you work — maybe hide fields you never use or reorder them to match your workflow. This guide shows you how to personalize forms for yourself without affecting anyone else.
Why personal form layouts matter
ServiceNow ships with generic form layouts that try to work for everyone, which means they're rarely ideal for anyone. Admins get requests to move fields around or hide certain sections, but those changes affect every user — and what helps one person often hurts another. Meanwhile, individual users adapt by scrolling past irrelevant fields or memorizing where things are buried. Personal form layouts solve this by letting each user optimize forms for their own work without breaking anyone else's setup.
Two paths for form changes
Form personalization works at two levels. Personal layouts (right-click the form header > Personalize Form) let individual users add, remove, hide, and reorder fields for themselves only — these changes are stored per-user and don't affect anyone else. Admin-level changes (using Form Designer or Form Layout) modify the default layout that all users see. Start with personal layouts to test what works, then work with your admin to make proven changes globally. Personal layouts override the default, so your changes stay even when admins update the base form.
Building better personal layouts
Most users start by hiding fields they never touch — that's fine for cleaning up clutter. Better personalization involves reordering fields to match how you actually work through records, grouping related fields together, and adding reference fields you frequently check. The real power comes from understanding which fields you can safely hide (versus making them read-only) and using form sections to organize information logically for your role.
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Step by step
Open the form you want to personalize
Navigate to the record you want to modify and open it in form view. This works on any form — incidents, requests, change records, whatever you're trying to customize. The form needs to be fully loaded before you can access personalization options.
Access the personalization menu
Right-click anywhere on the form header (the blue bar containing the record number). Select 'Personalize Form' from the context menu. This opens the form personalization interface where you can modify the layout without affecting other users' views.
Add fields to your layout
In the personalization interface, you'll see 'Available' fields on the left and 'Selected' fields on the right. Drag fields from Available to Selected to add them to your form. Double-click fields to move them quickly between sides. Fields in Selected will appear on your form; everything else stays hidden.
Reorder and organize fields
Drag fields up and down within the Selected list to reorder them — top fields appear first on your form. Use the section headers (like 'Notes' or 'Resolution Information') to group related fields together. You can move fields between sections by dragging them above or below section dividers.
Put fields you check first at the top of each section — don't just follow the alphabetical order ServiceNow suggests.
Configure field display options
Click the gear icon next to any field in the Selected list to set display options. You can make fields read-only, required, or hidden conditionally. For reference fields, enable 'Display value' to show the display value instead of just the sys_id link. Apply your changes and close the personalization interface.
Test your personalized layout
Refresh the form or navigate to another record of the same type to see your changes. Your personalized layout applies to all records of this table type. Open a few different records to make sure the field order and visibility work across various record states.
Reset or share successful layouts
To undo personalization, right-click the form header and select 'Reset Form Layout'. This reverts to the default layout for all users. If your personalized layout works well, document what you changed and share it with your admin — they might want to make those improvements available to everyone through Form Designer.
Best practices
Don't hide fields that other users might need to see when they view your records — personalization only affects your view, but you still collaborate on the same data.
Keep required fields visible even if you don't use them often — hiding them can cause confusion when you hit validation errors on submit.
Test personalized layouts on both new and existing records since field behavior can vary based on record state and workflow.
Document significant personalizations before making admin-level changes — your personal layout overrides will hide whether global changes actually work.
Use read-only field settings sparingly in personal layouts — they prevent you from editing even when you have legitimate reasons to change values.
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