Column Headings and Linking

Terry P

Hi Guys

A quick question (if there is such a thing); when adding a link from one sheet to a cell in another sheet do the column headings have to be the same?

My assumption would be they don't, I imagine the column name 'internally' is irrelevant and there is an underlying system generated reference, otherwise changing a column name would be really complicated!

I'm having limited success with cell linking at the moment and 'matching' the column headings was a suggestion.

What I would like to have is a sub-sheet, that has some cells populated via the content of another sheet and some cells created with automations based on the linked cell content.

Most desirable is for a new row on the top sheet to force a new row with the appropriate linked cell content in the sub-sheet.

Any thought?

Cheers

Terry

Paul Newcome

Column headings shouldn't matter. Are you able to provide more details and possibly some screenshots?

Terry P

Hi Paul, apologies in advance for the long reply ;-)

There are 3 Sheets in play:

The Master Sheet - I'm the owner of this sheet and it's used to firstly consolidate data-capture (via a form) for a specific process within our organization. Once collected the data is reviewed and there are several approval gates that the sheet manages. One of the approvals is via another teams process...

The Finance Sheet - Owned by Finance, I have admin rights. Much like the Master Sheet, currently 'my team' submits a Form to the Finance Team at a particular point in the overall process I'm running

The Shadow Sheet - Owned by me, this is a copy of the Finance Sheet structure (with renamed columns) but is populated from the Master Sheet. This is where I'm struggling, it's a mix of cell links to the Master Sheet and 'set data' pushed into it via an automation.

What I'm trying to achieve: When a new row is created via the Form in the Master Sheet I want a new row to appear on the Shadow Sheet, pulling over some of the cell contents via cell linkage from the Master Sheet - the cells in the Shadow Sheet are linked to cells in the Master Sheet (blue arrow heads) not the other way around.

What is happening: If I go into the shadow sheet and add the cell links (clicking the column header in the Master Sheet) the cells all update and pull down the data, creating a row for each row in the Master Sheet. If I then change the data for the linked cells in the Master Sheet the Shadow sheet also updates - sometimes after quite a few minutes - I've learned patience!

So far so good,

However, when the Form populates a new row on the Master Sheet nothing shows up on the Shadow Sheet unless I go back in and re-add the cell links (clicking the columns on the Master Sheet), it's not adding the row automatically :-(

Why am I trying to do this? What I eventually want to do is copy new rows from the Shadow Sheet over to the Finance Sheet (hence why the Shadow is a copy of the finance sheet) using a time based automation, various flags/criteria in the Shadow Row prevent duplicate copies. This takes out most of the manual work, removing the Finance Form, I just need to figure out a way to get a status back again... not an issue for now

I did seem to have this working but noticed that in testing I was always forcing the Shadow Sheet to update by adding in links, once I stopped it broke down by not copying the new row.

So far I'm super impressed with Smartsheet but I seem to be hitting walls attempting to get slick workflow across multiple sheets in multiple workspaces - am I asking too much?

Again, sorry for the long ramble!

Cheers

Terry

Andrée Starå

Hi @Terry P

I hope you're well and safe!

Try something like this instead. (you can't use cell-linking with new rows without a premium add-on/Smartsheet API)

You could use cross-sheet formulas combined with either a VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH structure to connect the sheets, and when you update the source sheet, it will reflect on the destination sheet.

Another option would be to use so-called helper sheets. In short, copy the row to a helper sheet and then use my method described previously to get the values you need to another helper sheet and then copy/move the row from that sheet to the main destination sheet.

To connect them row by row, you'd use an Autonumber Column in the Source sheet and add a so-called helper column to manually add the row id on as many rows as you think you need in the Destination sheet.

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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Terry P

Thanks Andree - I'll try and get my head around that, it sounds positive!

I was hoping to stay away from too many formula as it's nit my strong suit, but needs must ;-)

Have a great day!

Terry P

... out of interest what is the add on?

Andrée Starå

@Terry P

Excellent!

Happy to help!

The add-on is called DataMesh.

https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/datamesh

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Paul Newcome

@Terry P The formulas for pulling the data over shouldn't be too terribly complex. If you have a unique identifier on each row, there are some help articles that can assist with an INDEX/MATCH and cross sheet references, there are a TON of posts here in the Community detailing INDEX/MATCH formulas, and there are quite a few of us here that would be happy to help if you still need some assistance.

Andrée Starå

@Terry P

More information about cross-sheet formulas and INDEX/MATCH.

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

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

https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/level-3-advanced-users/cross-sheet-formulas

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2482647-cross-sheet-formula-combinations

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