Best Of
Community Corner Newsletter [March 2025]
Hey Community friends,
A big shoutout to @Marcela for sharing her amazing adventure with the Social Responsibility Pillar in last month’s edition! If you missed it, you can find it here. Since both Marcela and I are from Costa Rica, it’s no surprise that we share a deep love for nature and outdoor adventures.
Last summer, I had the chance to return to my hometown and spend some quality time at my parents’ house. There’s something special about going back to where you grew up, reconnecting with family, and rediscovering the beauty of familiar places. Stay with me to see more of my trip!
Community highlights
Help us welcome some of our newest Member introductions in Show & Tell or look through the Trending section for more ways to connect.
Say hello to these Community Members 👋🏻
You can find more new members and say hello here.
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Community updates
In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)
Celebrate the Community’s 10 Anniversary
Enter the giveaway by March 17!
March Question of the Month
Smartsheet Forward - Upcoming AI, and collaboration innovations
Discover how they are making your work easier
Smartsheet User Group in Dallas, TX on March 11
Secure a spot for you and your colleagues before they are gone!
Brand Collective Podcast
This episode - The power of knowing your audience
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Pass the mic 🎤 Community Champions
Community Champions are members who demonstrate product expertise and generosity in sharing best practices and support with others on the platform.
“In life and in business, we are all critical of ourselves; sometimes way more critical than others would ever be to us. Small bumps in the road are not world-ending, nor should they stop us from trying again. Each moment of failure presents an opportunity for growth - to learn from mistakes, understand root-causes, and improve the next time around.
So be kind to yourself, try something new, and take that risk. Because I know for me, and for all of us here - failure is not the result that we will end on.”
- @Will Duplex , Sr. Assets Protection Business Partner at Target and Community Champion (Read his full comment here)
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Member Appreciation
See Activity feed for more
This month's leaderboard
Member spotlight
Do you know someone in the Community who should be next month's Member Spotlight? Nominate them here.
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Overachiever's Motivation Mix
The Smartsheet Overachievers are here to give you the songs that will keep you going and keep you achieving! Here’s what’s on the playlist right now.
Michael Franti & Spearhead - Say Hey (I Love You)
“I have always loved Michael Franti’s positivity, especially with this song. It is an older song but has always been a big favorite with my daughter and me. There is no way that you can sit still when you hear it.”
- @Paul Reeves , Principal Business Analyst at HMH + current Overachiever (learn more about Paul here)
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More about Isaac:
My hometown, Sarchí, is a charming town nestled in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, specifically in the province of Alajuela. Known for its rich biodiversity and artisan culture, it’s a place where you can easily catch breathtaking sunsets with stunning mountain views. Here’s a picture of one of those sunsets from a favorite spot of mine.
While walking near my parents’ house with my dog, I came across a beautiful flower blooming from a fallen tree, one of those small but magical moments that nature often surprises us with. Being home also meant quality time with my family, and as a grill guy, I couldn’t pass up the chance to fire up the grill! Here’s a shot of some shrimp I cooked for everyone.
No matter where life takes me, Sarchí will always be my home. Do you have a special place that always feels like home, no matter how much time passes?
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Give us your feedback
Have ideas for the next Community Corner? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Note: Unfollow this Topic if you'd no longer like to receive alerts. We'll miss you!
Isaac A.
Re: I need something different than the update request
Hey Debbie, you're definitely not alone in wanting something like this. We're working on a "Smart Notification" feature for our Chrome Extension that enhances the Smartsheet experience.
Is what you're asking for basically the ability to send custom notifications that include specific column data from your sheet, with a better message composition interface and without requiring the recipient to update anything?
It sounds like you need a way to share targeted information from your sheets with others in a more user-friendly format than the standard update request.
Would you also find it helpful to have preset instruction templates that you could quickly add to your messages? And would the ability to save your own message templates for future use be valuable?
I'd love to hear more about your specific workflow so we can make sure our solution addresses your exact needs.
Re: Greetings, I am trying to find a way to identify the first occurrence of an entry in a column
I've struggled with this problem before and found a solution today. I wanted to be able to label the first occurrence without using any of the [Column A]$1:{Column A]@row syntax because Smartsheet doesn't allow that to be turned into a column formula. Also, I don't like Smartsheet's Auto Number columns because my solutions often have rows moved around, deleted, etc. which makes these columns not reliable as an index or row counter. However, you can follow the steps below to solve both of these issues and reliably get back whether a value in a given column is the first occurrence or not.
I typically don't post but think this one is worth a post. There's a ton of applications of this. Fig 1 is my sample sheet. Fig 2-5 show the formulas. Steps below
- Set up an "Auto Number" column.
- Set up a dynamic row count using the match function (Fig 2)
- Set up another match function on the column you are looking to identify the first occurrence of a value in (Fig 3)
- If these two match columns are equal, you are looking at the first occurrence (Fig 4)
- Fig 5 shows the occurrences of "Groceries" and "Fuel" in adjacent cells in the column.
- Fig 6 shows where I move the first occurrence of "Fueld to row 4.
Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 4
Fig 5
Fig 6
DylBlake
Re: Multiple Questions about Index Match and referencing other sheets
It is hard to suggest specific formulas based off of your screenshots, so I'll make a couple of observations that might be helpful instead.
first - I presume for their "usage form" you are using an actual form, correct? Vs just having them type into a grid, I mean. That form needs to capture their unit number as well and add it to the same grid as where you are capturing usage.
Second - Index(match()) is used when you are trying to index through some list of data and you use the match() part to figure out how far to index into it. What you want is something more like a sumifs() formula - where you add up all the data in a given column based on criteria in other columns. So, to track inventory, you could use a sumifs() to pull the starting inventory for any given medicine for any given unit number, add to that the result of a second sumifs() that looks at restocks that are of that medicine and to that given unit number, subtract from that the result of a third sumifs() that looks at usages of that medicine by that given unit number.
Because you have each medicine in a different column (vs a column for "Medicine Name" and another for "Quantity" and just having them all together) you are going to need unique formulas for each medicine because they need to refer to separate columns each time. This has plusses and minuses - on the one hand, it makes your setup work harder. On the other hand, it avoids a lot of potential ways to run into problems ONCE it is setup. But, be aware of it - you can't just copy your narcan formula into your ketamine column and call it a day - you'll need to delete the {dataSource} references and add new ones (DON'T click the "Edit reference" button or whatever it is called - that will change it everywhere it was used and break the columns you've finished. Just delete it and add a new reference) to the correct columns.
Jgorsich
Re: How can I change Community profile name
Hi Rebeca! Thanks so much for your assistance on this.😀
Michael Drayton
Re: Happy 10th Anniversary Community + Giveaway!
Smartsheet is an easy-to-use yet powerful tool which can be used to gather and display project relevant data, and which is flexible enough for use in solving a multitude of data collection and reporting needs.
Re: Happy 10th Anniversary Community + Giveaway!
Smartsheet is a smarter (Ha!), online version of Excel which can automatically remind you to do things and won't crash when multiple people are in it.
hannah_johnson
Re: Happy 10th Anniversary Community + Giveaway!
Smartsheet empowers organizations to create a single source to automate, collaborate, track, and report on work in a single source with minimal training. Anyone who has used Excel will quickly adopt it, avoiding the lengthy configuration and training needed to use other tools. It is excellent for project management, finance, and HR teams. It can help organize, manage, and report on new employee onboarding and budgeting and provides real-time insight with dashboards and reporting functions.
OKeeffeBrian
Re: Happy 10th Anniversary Community + Giveaway!
Smartsheet is like Excel on Steroids. There is a lot of similarities between the two programs. They both are excellent programs, but Smartsheet takes it one step farther.
Janelle
Re: Happy 10th Anniversary Community + Giveaway!
Smartsheet is the perfect solution to quickly extract insights out of data and make real-time visuals without a steep learning curve!
meagans