Fields can be removed from a screen completely. When a field is taken off, the field will not appear when the screen is presented to the user. There is a subtle difference between deleting a field from a screen and hiding it (as discussed in Chapter 5, Field Management). Although both actions will prevent the field from showing up, by removing the field issues will not receive a value for that field when they are created. This becomes important when a field is configured to have a default value. When the field is removed from the screen, the issue will not have the default value for the field; while if the field is simply hidden, the default value will be applied.

You will also need to pay close attention when deleting fields from a screen, as there is no confirmation dialog. Make sure that you do not delete required fields, such as Summary, from a screen used to create new issues. As seen in Chapter 5, Field Management, Jira will prevent you from hiding fields that are marked as required, but Jira does not prevent you from taking the required fields off the screen. Therefore, it is possible for you to end up in a situation where Jira requires a value for a field that does not exist on the screen. This can lead to very confusing error messages for end users:

1. Browse to the Configure Screen page for the screen you wish to configure
2. Hover your mouse over the field you want to delete and click on the Remove button