Automated email with link to particular row

3djeff

We use SS for project management. When a task needs to be handed off to a new person (the next step in the project) we set up an automated email that lets them know. Unfortunately, there is no way to include a link to the particular project row in the email. The email only includes a link to the entire spreadsheet.

Our current workaround has been to tag the user in a comment, which does send them an email w/ a link to the row. This is not ideal as it causes 2 emails to be sent every time a project is handed off to a new staff person.

tagabourie

Using Smartsheet for a complicated project, there are some issues we are having with the email notification system in Smartsheet that make it inefficient and not particularly useful. It has the potential to be a major strength for the software, however, we have identified the following issues that have instead made it unusable and generally ignored by our project staff.

1. Most importantly, and frustratingly absent, is the lack of direct linking from the email notification to the actual line item in a Smartsheet tracker. At the moment it simply opens the sheet and you have to scroll through to find the line item that you were notified about via email. It simply needs to be optimized so that users are directly linked to the task.

2. To optimize the details of the notification system, the option to include the parent and child line items will provide more detail to the recipients of the notification email.

3. Enhancement of the notification frequency options would be ideal and most user-friendly. Specifically, the option to cluster notifications being received from at minimum a sheet, or best case scenario a Workspace.

4. While the addition of a separate desktop app has been a good addition, the notifications are still only linking to the website version. This is not efficient and/or motivation for people to use the desktop app if they are continuously being linked back to the website.

spauliszyn

The same can be said for sending approvals. The email has a link to the entire sheet and not the specific row that needs to be approved. Kind'a complicated when the approver has to do a search or set up a filter for the ID number or something like that.

Should be a temporary filter specific to the notification or approval request. When they navigate away the filter is lost but they can get it again by clicking the link in the email

Samuel Mueller

@3djeff this is currently possible sort of.. it's not perfect (like if you are in a workapps). However, I agree with adding it built into an automation, that would be nice. You could implement a process to copy this link into a column and send that with the automation, or if you have Bridge you could automate this:

This is what the link looks like : https://app.smartsheet.com/sheets/5mPfP6Xxxxxxxxx8mrfgQ9F1?rowId=3206887172990852

3djeff

Thanks for sharing. What I'm not clear on is how to 'implement a process to copy this link into a column and send that with the automation'. I see where you can get the row link (as shown in your screenshot), but can't figure out how to pass on that to a new column.

Samuel Mueller

@3djeff without the use of the API or Bridge, you would have to manually copy this url into the sheet, from there you can include it in an automation. So when I said 'implement a process to copy this link into a column and send that with the automation' I meant manually copy the row link and paste it into the cell prior to the automation firing.