Sheet Picker Update for Move/Copy Row Automations is now generally available

Lekshmi Unnithan

Hi Community, 

We updated the sheet picker UI used to specify the destination sheet for move and copy row automated workflows. The new sheet picker UI is faster and more consistent with other areas of the product, like Search and Reports. 

Licensed users on all Commercial US and Commercial EU plans will have access to the updated sheet picker experience for move and copy row automation.

Please note:

• If you don't immediately see a newly created or recently shared sheet as an option in the Move or Copy Row workflows, please wait for 5-10 minutes and try again.
• If you haven't used your account for more than six months, it can take up to 24 hours for your search results to populate. Search will be faster once the first set of results appears. Please be patient. Contact support if your search takes more than 24 hours.

Learn more about how to move and copy rows using Smartsheet automation.

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Cheers,

Lekshmi Unnithan

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Product screenshot of new sheet picker UI:

ker9

I had a lot of problems trying to search for the sheets I wanted. I submitted feedback through the EAP site.

Example: I have 10 sheets that begin with "Test". I searched for t and it returned 3 sheets that did not have test in the name. Next search used te and it returned one sheet that did not have test in the name nor did it contain te, it contained TA. Third attempt searched for tes and it finally returned the 10 sheets. (I own all the Test sheets.)

You'll need to know your sheet name in order to search for it.

Paul Newcome

I don't like it. I have too many problems getting the right sheet(s) to pop up in the regular search as it is. The old way I could just start typing the name and it would show everything filtering as I type more. Can we bring the old way back???

MMcLain

Dear All: I submitted a ticket yesterday because of the following: I would like to know if any of you noticed this. Thank you.

I was able to duplicate the issue in Google Chrome on Dell (my work laptop) and my MAC (Google Chrome and Safari).

Type A Sheets:

• Were created by another team
• They transferred the ownership to me.

Type B Sheets:

• Were created by me
• I am still the owner.

Copy Rows works – business as usual if Type B Sheets are the Source Sheets (rows being copied via workflow to Type A Sheets).

Copy Rows doesn’t work if Type A Sheets are the Source Sheets (rows being copied via workflow to Type B Sheets). 

Christina09

I had the same problem as they did. :(

SJ Sellers

HELP! This is completely unworkable. All of our workspaces have identical folder structures. (our Workspace represents a project, all projects should be structured identically). The search results give me no way to determine which workspace the search results are related to.

How am I supposed to pick a destination sheet given the results below?

Paul Newcome

@SJ Sellers I agree that having consistent naming conventions is important, and I definitely see the struggle you're dealing with (and certainly don't mean to make light of it), but... I generally suggest having unique names for things. They can still have similar naming conventions, but having something to make it unique really helps. I usually incorporate the project name.

Dashboard Data - Project A

or

Project A - Dashboard Data

I still want the old picker back, but maybe that will help in the meantime.

SJ Sellers

Hi @Paul Newcome -

We are using Smartsheet to run our PMO. Each project has a Workspace. Each Workspace has approximately 80 sheets. When we create a new project, we copy our template workspace to initiate the new project. Right now we have about 40 Workspaces for the 40 projects we are running.

You are suggesting that when we initiate a new project, we manually change the name of all 80 sheets after we make the copy of our template workspace.

There is no benefit to us having unique names across all of these 40 workspaces. The users for each workspace are generally unique. The fact there are other sheets and folders with the same name in another Workspace is invisible to most users. It would be redundant from the user perspective to have a structure that looks like this:

Project Apollo Workspace ->

_____Project Apollo Dashboard Data Folder ->

__________Project Apollo Status Report

__________Project Apollo Status Report Snapshots

__________Project Apollo Status Report Metrics

_____Project Apollo Project Plan Folder ->

__________Project Apollo Project Plan

__________Project Apollo Project Plan Metrics

__________Project Apollo Project Plan Cross Tab

__________Project Apollo Project Plan Lookahead

And so on for the 18 different folders and sub-folders across the project because everything in the Workspace should be about Project Apollo. From the end-user perspective, any reference to Project Apollo is taking up real estate in an already crowded UI.

A small-ish group of administrators has access across all 40 workspaces.

If I search in File Explorer, OneDrive, SharePoint, Apple Notes, TickTick, OneNote, EverNote, or any other commercial-grade system, the full path is shown to users because it is not a realistic assumption that every filename and folder name is unique.

Paul Newcome

@SJ Sellers Not necessarily every single one of the 80 sheets in each workspace, but definitely suggested for the more used ones such as the "Status Report Snapshots" you have in your screenshot.

I also very strongly suggest looking into Control Center. It is specifically designed for what you are doing, automatically links new projects to a summary sheet, controls intake, creates the new workspace (or folder within a workspace if desired), can take care of some of the sharing permissions, and also renames everything from the template in a manner similar to what I suggested earlier (you can choose the naming convention). Certain pieces can even be updated all at once across all existing projects using a feature called Global Updates.

I will say there is a bit of a learning curve to Control Center, and the documentation can leave you guessing, but... Once it is set up it can be a beautiful thing. There is also a group here in the Community for Add-ons where you can request help specifically for Control Center from people who actually use Control Center.

SJ Sellers

Hi @Paul Newcome

We looked into Control Center, but the cost was far too high. Saving the Workspace as new has worked for us. The only changes we have to make after "saving as new" is to update the destinations on the Copy/Move Automations and capture the links for forms. We don't need to link to a summary sheet because our corporate office requires us to use another tool for Portfolio metrics across projects. We don't need to manage permissions because we surface content in WorkApps. The creation of a new workspace is an easy lift that takes minutes. The hard part for us is manually configuring Calendar App views (because Smartsheet does not let you Copy a Calendar), and manually configuring the WorkApp to surface all the content in the Workspace.

I edited my note above to say why I don't think changing the names for folders is good for our use case - it is visual clutter from an end-user perspective.

Paul Newcome

@SJ Sellers I read your update as well as your most recent point, and I definitely understand where you are coming from including the cost point of Control Center. I swear I'm not trying to sell you on anything, but if you have good use cases for some of the other add-ons, Smartsheet Advance may be something worth looking into (if your sales rep hasn't already tried to push for it). It bundles the add-ons and (depending on a few variables) can sometimes be less expensive than purchasing multiple add-ons "a la carte".

I also understand the concern for clutter when using project names on every item. My example was just that. An example. Usually I will try to come up with some sort of short code that is only a few characters long or some other way to shorten it, and sometimes even append it on the end.

Project Apollo Workspace ->

_____Dashboard Data - Apollo Folder ->

__________Status Report - Apollo

__________Status Report Snapshots - Apollo

__________Status Report Metrics - Apollo

_____Project Plan - Apollo Folder ->

__________Project Plan - Apollo

__________Project Plan Metrics - Apollo

__________Project Plan Cross Tab - Apollo

__________Project Plan Lookahead - Apollo

But I do see where Control Center is a bit of overkill in this particular instance (although it can also push out new WorkApps with each project now). It also can't capture form URLs if you are using them in a web content widget on a dashboard. That would still have to be manually updated every time as well.

Again... Not trying to make light of your struggles or anything like that. Just trying to find ways to help. I am NOT a fan of this update either.

I wish I could tell you that there was some magic way to get it to revert, but in the meantime maybe just renaming the sheets you regularly search for (instead of all ~80) in each workspace may help.

SJ Sellers

@Paul Newcome

I changed the folder name and then changed it back to do what I needed to accomplish, and I will have to continue to do this until Smartsheet corrects this.

Not including the full path in the Search results is absolutely inexcusable. This is how every other commercial-grade software works. Smartsheet never admits that its approach was constructed with a very narrow viewpoint - somehow their customers are always the dummies for not using their product in a way to magically align with how their software might change in the future, as with this update.

They didn't do a good job of defining user acceptance test cases before rolling this change out. I doubt they will admit it, but I hope they prove me wrong.

Paul Newcome

@SJ Sellers They do have an Early Adopter Program. Anyone can sign up for it, and anyone participating is able to provide feedback. That is how they test (most) of their updates before actually releasing.

I will admit that I dropped the ball this time around in that I didn't test it while it was in the EAP. Had I done that, I would have definitely provided negative feedback. Unfortunately I was extremely busy with clients and didn't have time to log into my account that is part of the EAP program for this one.

So they do have some customer testing and feedback. It just relies on the customer which (as we can see) does have its flaws.

Here is a "Product Enhancement Request" to bring back the old UI. Maybe if we get enough votes on it, they will roll this new UI back. 🤞

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/106951/bring-back-the-old-sheet-picker-for-copy-move-row-automations

EricaGraf

I'm trying to set up a cross sheet automation that when a box is checked and a project type is selected it copies the row to a "helper" sheet, and then back to the original (we want to keep the original data in a locked row by itself, but have a new row for the execution side of the project that the users can update as they are completing their discovery work and identifying the data needed to be able to move into execution). When I try to search, it pulls up no results. When I go to the helper sheet I created (it's a duplicate of the original with column names/types), it does the same thing (no results). Both sheets are in the same workspace, I am the owner of the workspace and both assets. Is anyone else having the same issue with the new sheet search function in automations?

Andrée Starå

Hi @EricaGraf

I hope you're well and safe!

Have you tested it today? Did it work?

There seems to have been an issue yesterday.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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EricaGraf

Hi Andree,

Yes, I did try it again and it did work. Automations have been tested and are working correctly since they were set up.

Thanks!

Erica Graf