New Form is not empty?

Jwalker01

Hello,

Question: I made a form for a smartsheet so people can use it to enter lessons into a register.

I use a link in an email reminder so the recipient can open the form from the email.

Issue is: When the form opens it is already populated with the previous entry.

I am not sure how I am messing this up, but I am looking for a blank form.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Jake

RebSchr

Did you happen to select default information in the form? If you have a value here, it will pre-populate that information for you - you have to check each field included on your form to see how you have this set.

Jwalker01

Thank you for your answer but I have done nothing to set a default value, and checking I see noting is set for this in any field. Not sure why the form would auto populate with the last entry, or why we have the weird addition of a random number of blank lines added to the form all by its self.

That being said, You gave me the idea of using the default text to display things like, "Details go here..." to ensure the form does not display the previous entry. This is another workaround to add to the sheet, one of many.

Thanks!

Jake

Genevieve P.

Hi @Jwalker01

Can I clarify, are you using a Smartsheet Form or an Update Request?

Forms are unable to populate information from rows in Smartsheet so I would love to see a screen capture if you're experiencing this! It would be unexpected behaviour and I'd like to replicate what you're seeing.

However an Update Request sends the row to a person and allows them to adjust current content on that row. Is it possible that the link you're sending in the workflow is an Update Request instead of the Form link?

Jwalker01

Ah, this must be the case.

I am using an update request automation that provides the user to a button linked to the form in the email they receive. There must be something in the way I set this up... This update request function must be seeing the previous entry as the line for which I am requesting an update and subsequently populating the form with this info.

Let me look into this with your comment in mind and get back to you. I have often wondered how much of this is my learning curve, this may be a good example.

Jwalker01

It seems this is part of my learning curve. I thought I was using the form I made, but I was seeing the form the automation made. It looked just like my form, and I did not realize they were different forms until I changed mine.

I am basically doing this wrong, an unfortunate rise in my learning curve. @Genevieve P. teased out the issue, Thanks!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Jwalker01

I'm glad we could sort it out! 🙂

I would suggest sending an Alert type of action in your workflow instead, and copy/paste the form URL into the body of the message.

You can then simply send the message without any fields, and the form URL will be clickable in the email (or if your users have spam blockers that strip hyperlinks, it may just be the text of the form URL they can copy/paste). See: Customize the content of your alerts and requests

Cheers,

Genevieve