'Save' button for work in progress, for external form-fillers?

yakibiker

We use Smartsheet forms for grant applicants to submit initial information. Without a 'save' button or feature, we've had to advise our applicants to prepare all their answers offline, and then enter all their responses in one session. This can be problematic if the applicant gets pulled away on another task, call, e-mail, etc.

Is there a 'save' feature available for external Viewers or Commenters? Or has anyone developed an effective work-around? Imagine all the new customers Smartsheet could create were this functionality availability to end-users!

isabonita

Greetings @yakibiker!

The way I've worked around this is by adding a field that says "Finished" or "Done" and then if it isn't checked - incorporating a Dynamic View report on the dashboard.

There are a couple of ways I've been able to do this:

Without premium apps:

They would have to login.

Have the applicant:

1. Enter their email when they begin filling out the form.
2. Add a field to say they are "Done"
3. Add a report that is filtered based on "Current User" (make sure to set Viewer Mode to "Their own perspective"
4. They can then click the report and update the information.

The column names would need to be descriptive enough so they would know what to fill out, and any logic you have in the form would not be available in the sheet. Also, the Column Description would not be available.

WITH a premium app - Dynamic View (this is my preferred way AND we are getting a free trial of Dynamic View for 30 days in a couple of weeks)

1. Create a Dynamic View to look just like your Form
2. You can add the logic, help text, etc.
3. The person would click on the row and review or finish updating.
4. When they are finished select the "Done" option.

TIP: If you make the "Done" option a dropdown rather than a checkbox - you can use that to create logic in the Dynamic View details panel. For example, it could be used to lock in their answers and make the fields read-only.

Let me know if you have questions!