Remind me what makes a field editable with inline editing. For instance I have a custom record field. The custom record has Enable Inline Editing checked, but it's not editable.

Depends on the field type. Can you run a search for it, and enable 'edit' and change it?

i cannot. i thought show in list was for default results on a saved search.

Maybe one of these is causing the issue? From 11844 in SA

Ya, none of those apply. I'm admin - 1x, 2x. display type normal, no formulas, field is applied, it's a list/record type. a custom record in this case.

There's been times I had to move it to the main tab on the form for it to be inline editable

It's on the main tab.

does your field fall under non inline editable?

I am having a similar issue. As an Admin, I can inline edit 2 columns on a transaction search (both fields are main;line, normal, free-form text and the users are able to edit in UI) but a specific role does not get the ability to edit any columns on this search.