Selecting chart widget colors for items with no data

Stephanie Simard

This is driving me nuts and wasting time - is there a way to fix this I haven't come across yet?

We standardize colors on all our chart widgets across dashboards, so data for multiple projects is easily read. For example, a chart widget totaling tasks by status will use blue for Complete, green for In Progress, orange for Not Started, etc. Essentially, we choose the colors in these widgets with a purpose.

But when there's a total number in a category that drops to 0 and then has data again, the color resets itself to a random color - usually the same color that another category is using! (all of a sudden On Hold tasks are the same color as Complete tasks, because we had a few days with no tasks On Hold, and then added one)

In Pie Chart & Series I can only select the colors for data points that have data *at that moment*. For this reason we've added example rows in our templates just to populate data for each widget in the template dashboard, so colors can be selected. BUT (using the example again of a widget totaling tasks by status) when the number of tasks in that status drops to 0 and then hits 1+ again, Smartsheet assigns it a random new color, not the one originally chosen.

Is it possible to select colors for all possible statuses in the column even when there's no data there yet?

Ipshita

@Stephanie Simard we don't have that capability in Smartsheet yet and I vote up for your idea to have this incorporated in as a feature in the dashboards as we have also faced the same issue multiple times!

Colleen Patterson

Stephanie, I have found a similar issue when creating dashboards in the Control Center and used the same work around. I have not heard of any ability to do system defaults, but wanted to ping this in case anyone has a better answer.

Paul Newcome

Are you using a report to get your numbers for charting or metrics sheets?

If you are using metrics sheets, there is a way to get it to hold even for those that are 0.

Basically you add 0.0001 to the formula generating your number and then adjust the visible decimals using the button on the top toolbar to decrease them to no decimals.

It will show as 0 in your metrics sheets and charts, but since it is not technically zero (those decimal values are stored on the back-end), the charts will register that something is in fact there and will keep it in the legend and keep the color you set.

Stephanie Simard

@Colleen Patterson thanks for that - I imagined there was a chance Control Center would allow this so it's useful to know it doesn't.

@Paul Newcome this is a great tip, thank you. We're using reports. I will play around with this on a metric sheet and it will definitely solve a couple of my issues with specific dashboards.

Because we have so many reports already in use and spun up for every new project, I really hope this is an item Smartsheet can tackle eventually.

Paul Newcome

@Stephanie Simard I do know that there are some updates to dashboards "coming soon", but I don't have a specific date and am not sure what the full list of updates is going to be.

https://www.smartsheet.com/content-center/product-news/product-releases/smartsheets-next-evolution-feb-23?_ga=2.159479613.1079821197.1675717563-366504470.1675717563&_gl=1*t759xa*_ga*MzY2NTA0NDcwLjE2NzU3MTc1NjM.*_ga_ZYH7XNXMZK*MTY3NjAzMzE1Ni4xNC4xLjE2NzYwMzY1MTguNy4wLjA.

I was building out dashboards and whatnot LONG before reports could be grouped and summarized for chart widgets, so I still end up building out pretty dynamic metrics sheets out of habit. Haha.

You young'uns with your newfangled gadgets... Back in my day we used to have to walk a mile, barefoot, through 6 feet of snow, uphill both ways, just to use the bathroom. 🤣