Symbol Flexibility - more symbol colors/options

RB UMC

The ability to build our own Symbol Sets for a drop-down menu (even just using the pre-existing individual symbols, not creating a custom symbol itself) is a desirable asset and would assist in various data management senarios that require the use of more than four or five categories of classification

Adrian Mandile CHESS

Could we please add Symbol column-type with five colors options - Red, Yellow, Green, Blue (e.g. for 'not yet started') AND Gray (e.g. for 'n/a' or 'error')?

L_123

You can use the unichar/char lists. Build a table and use lookups and returns to choose from the hundreds of thousands of available symbols.

leross21

Right now, the colored dots range from green, yellow, red, gray/blue. I'd like to expand this to a set of 5 if possible for better communication in our tracker (different colors represent different stages within the process, etc.). We could easily even use upwards of 7 different colored dots, and custom colors would be best, but I know this would interfere with formulas which use these colors below.

Adrian Mandile CHESS

See also: Five color symbols — Smartsheet Community

Andrée Starå

Hi @leross21

I hope you're well and safe!

In the meanwhile, here's a possible workaround or workarounds

• You can use other symbols by using UNICHAR, CHAR or Emojis.

More info:

https://help.smartsheet.com/function/unichar

https://help.smartsheet.com/function/char

www.getemoji.com

A great resource that Paul Newcome put together

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=82f8fe0936a54758a3afa4b584acde07

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Mike Wilday

A more creative workaround might be a creating your own flag with particular words like B Y G Gr Bl, etc. and then using conditional formating to color the cell based on the word or letter combos in the cell. Have you thought about that?

Mike Wilday

Here's an example

Andrée Starå

@Mike Wilday

Excellent option.

I'd also change the text, so it becomes "invisible".

Candice Kwiatkowski

On the same sheet, I have instances where a down arrow good (green) or bad (red). I would like to use conditional formatting to color code arrows appropriately, but the current Symbol column only allows for red/down green/up, or black arrows only.

Lori Cross

I think it would be great if we could have more than four colors in the symbol column type

Candice Kwiatkowski

Agree!! I have many different uses for arrows - would love to be able to choose their formatting!

Robby CK

Hi there.

Two people at my current client are color blind.

When using the Red/Yellow/Green/Gray "Symbol" set in a sheet, I learned all the colors in this symbol set appear as grey to them:

Changing the colors (darker reds/maroons and 'golder' yellows work to provide variation), or adding a letter to the center of the symbol (E.g., "R" for red, "G" for green, "Y" for yellow and an 'empty' gray) would make this symbol set usable by some color blind individuals.

Or... some better idea, of course!

PS Maybe add a "Tag" for idea submission for an "Accessibility" value?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Robby CK

I hope you're well and safe!

Here's a possible workaround or workarounds

• You could use Emojis instead and combine them with text.

https://getemoji.com

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up, Awesome, or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Robby CK

Hi, @Andrée Starå .

Thanks for the emoji idea. Please share a bit more on how this would work.

My independent research showed "Symbol" column-type values cannot be customized. (https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2480241-column-type-reference)

Cheers,

Rob

Andrée Starå

@Robby CK

Happy to help!

You would use a number/text column with a formula.

Something like this. =IF([Column C]@row = 1, "🔴", "🟪")

Make sense?

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up/Awesome or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!