Group Columns in Grid

Laura Payne

Hi! I use a really large grid-style Smartsheet to track all aspects of project development and health. It would be very helpful to have a way of grouping columns. The hierarchy for rows works great, but I think with columns I am just looking for a way to clean up my views.

I feel like the best (and only) solution right now is to use the Reports. But now I have so many reports it's very difficulty to track all of that, too.

Sameer Karkhanis

Add feature to group columns (like MS Excel has) - Can save some horizontal scrolling and will help displaying columns on need basis.

Nik Fuentes

I also have huge summary sheets that have big chunks of related columns. The ability to visibly group them beyond coloring them would be huge. Even just a coloured perimeter around the whole group would work wonders.

Bonus points if you can hide/unhide as a group.

wfowler

Hello,

It would be a great feature if you could group columns by creating a hierarchy systems just like you can do for rows. Thank you!

fmoser

'nuff said. would be great to be able to group columns by function or category.

wfowler

It would be tremendously helpful if you could group columns with the exact same hierarchy system that rows have. This is a make-or-break feature for Berklee College of Music in our consideration of adopting Smartsheet at a larger scale across our institution. Thank you!

Netta

Hey,

Id like to group columns

Laura Payne

Hello! I know this question has come up for me and other teammates. I've also seen it on question threads. Please, please, please create a way to group columns. This is driving me crazy. there are so many brilliant features in Smartsheet. Can we add this one?

MattS345

Our organization uses one central sheet that house about 350 columns and is difficult to navigate. A good feature that sheets could have would be a way to group columns together and label them and then also create a table of contents that links to those groups within the sheet.

Phil Wightman

Hi @Laura Payne

Sounds like you are talking about 'parent' columns? For example from an org structure point you might have a column for division, then branch, then unit and you want to 'roll/fold' them up.

Could it be a simple as hiding columns in the above example. If its numerical would formulas be a way to solve. For example, FY sums months, months sums weeks, and week sums day?

Lastly tee is reporting like you mentioned.

Hope this was helpful.

Rgs

Phil

Laura Payne

Hi, @Phil Wightman -

It's funny you mention the "hide function", which I have used. I see it only as a short-term solution. A hierarchical system such as what we have for the rows would help save me a lot of time. With the hierarchy, it's easier to communicate the groupings with other teammates who are in the same sheet.

Honestly, the "Reports" feature is more helpful to me than hiding columns. It's drawback is that it is not agile clicking on all the links and opening all the browser tabs. At least in my browser, I can organize my tabs so it's easier for me to fully see and navigate.

Hiding the columns only address the scrolling, but it does not address the overall organization for me. 🤷‍♀️

Thank you for the suggestion. Hopefully, it's helped another person perusing the forums.

JJWW

Similar to rows, I hope smartsheet can group columns into a group for easily collapse/uncollapse. Right now I’m color coding them for easier view but it is not ideal. Thanks.

Attindas SS

You can group rows.... why not group/collapse columns?

Attindas SS

Rows can be grouped through the indent/outdent functions, but columns don't have this functionality. As it's so similar to Excel, one would think Smartsheet could integrate the functionality to group and minimize columns. (Sorry for the repeat as this was posted about a year ago, but nothing seems to have changed!)

RW91

To make sheets easier to read add functionality that allows column to be grouped and hidden

ghurvitt

Please please can there be a function to group columns. I have data from 2022, 2023, & 2024. I want to group and hide past data, without undoing the grouping every time I click "unhide".