Best Of
Re: Helping people realize Smartsheet value 📈
Hello everyone,
I am an Executive Assistant supporting all things Academics in K-12 Public Education. One way I have really sold the value of Smartsheet in our school district is by creating and implementing an Instructional Coaching log through Smartsheet. This is a process that existed but was never tracked or recorded and remained inconsistent across our schools. However, by turning a common set of questions that tie into our Strategic Plan and Teaching and Learning Framework, we can now track how coaching positively influences teaching in the classroom and student outcomes.
What started out as an inconsistent practice that left no way to monitor outcomes, I was able to turn into a tool that can reused, adjusted from year to year and that allows us to tie our district's goals to the implementation of professional learning in the classroom and see the changes in student outcomes through testing data.
This data is used to report to district leadership and the board of education on the value of the Instructional Coaching programs in our school district. Smartsheet allows us to monitor and track many processes and I find new ways of using it everyday.
Alan Miller 11
Re: January Question of the Month - Join the conversation and receive a badge
As the Sys Admin for my org, 2026 will be my year of Dashboard building and participating in enterprise IT strategy discussions! We have been using Smartsheet for about 6 years now, and the staff adoption and comfort level with the product have finally reached a tipping point (inflection point?) where they can foresee the value beyond just a grid sheet and automation reminders, and are asking coming to ask for assistance in implementing new solutions vs me going to them to 'sell' them on a solution.
Sarah Donnelly
Re: Cross Sheet Formula For Averaging Total Turn Around Time
Give this a try:
=IFERROR(AVG(COLLECT({TAT}, {TAT}, AND(@cell <> "", @cell <> 0), {Site Number}, @cell = [Site Number]@row)), "")
Paul Newcome
Re: What do you use for your Sheet Reference Name?
I usually use {Sheet Name: Range Identifier}. I will abbreviate sometimes if sheet or range names are longer, but I always make sure to use something that is very clear. Clarity is key.
Some examples would include…
Single Column: {Sheet Name: Column Name}
Multiple Columns: {Sheet Name: Start Column Name_End Column Name}
Entire Sheet: {Sheet Name: All}
Single Row: {Sheet Name: Row #}
Multiple Rows: {Sheet Name: Row #_Row #}
Section of rows/columns: {Sheet Name: ColumnName#_ColumnName#}
Paul Newcome
Re: What do you use for your Sheet Reference Name?
Hi @heyjay,
I name columns so their purpose is clear, such as Start Date or End Date. The same principle applies to sheet names, clear and meaningful naming is a good practice across all sheets.
At the same time, it’s important to keep names short rather than overly descriptive. When column and sheet names are used in formulas, especially cross-sheet references, long names can quickly make formulas lengthy and may even lead to the 4,000-character formula limit, which I’ve encountered in the past.
To avoid this, I follow a standard naming approach for both sheet and column names and use commonly accepted abbreviations where appropriate, such as: ID, ETA, SLA, Qty.
However, I avoid abbreviations that are not standardized or could cause confusion. The goal is to strike a balance between clarity, consistency, and formula efficiency.
Anjanesh Vaidya
Re: Timeline Chart on Dashboard
Pushing this question up in the community. I'm very interested in the answer. I was going to recommend adding a timeline to one of our project dashboards, but if there is a trick to it, or it isn't actually an option, I will not do that.
Sarah Donnelly
Re: Provide users with the ability to Print a Grouped Report
Hi @Gabriel F, currently the only way to do it is with SSFeatures.
This page explains how to do it:
Hope this helps!
SSFeatures
Re: More Gantt Timeline Display Options (+customizable headers)
For years I've suffered with the ridiculously coarse and uneven zoom levels in Smartsheet's Gannt charts. No more, I'm now raising my hand to say it's 2023 and we should have far more granularity in zoom levels on a Gannt chart view!
Ideally a zoom slider tool (like, for example in MS Word and Excel) rather than fixed increments. Twice the number of levels would be good, but really it should be at minimum 3-4x the levels of granularity than what exists today, if a zoom slider cannot be developed.
Let me express it in terms of how much time (schedule time in the Gannt chart) fits in 2" of screen width (the 2" is arbitrary and not what's important):
- Fully zoomed out, I see about 18 months - i.e. 1.5 years - shown/labeled as quarters (Q1, Q2, etc)
- 1st level zoom in: about 6.5 months (roughly 2.8x zoom from above 0 level zoom)
- 2nd level zoom in: about 1 month (roughly 6.5x zoom from above 1st level zoom)
- 3rd level (max) zoom in: 10 days (roughly 3x zoom from above 2nd level zoom)
Sorry, but that doesn't cut it -- the jump between 1st and 2nd level is massive (6.5x) and inconsistent with the other zoom levels. That's where the huge problem lies - every time I go from 1st to 2nd level zoom, it's jolting, frustrating, enormously dissatisfying, and therefore it's a tremendous disruption to my work flow! Is this how you want customers to feel using Smartsheet?!
Thank you for prioritizing this change, which should not be a terribly difficult one to make.
ScottZT
Re: 🪄 If you could snap your fingers to make onboarding your team easier..
So helpful hearing how you approach onboarding, Darla. Thank you!!
Madison M
Re: January Question of the Month - Join the conversation and receive a badge
Ditto, same here! I think I need a bigger desk. Would that help it seem cleaner, or just provide me more space to put stuff? Ugh, the struggle is real!
Ray Lindstrom