Assistance connecting document to dropdown in intake form

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DianaMitchell
edited 09/29/23 in Smartsheet Basics

We would like to use the form capabilities on project sheets to prepopulate dropdown fields with preselected information from source documents or sheets that live in the same project folder. Example - if a person is updating a specific deliverable, to ensure the naming convention and correct deliverable is selcted and updated we want the dropdown for 'X' deliverable to prepopulate with all of 'X' deliverables preselected options from 'X's built data source within the project folder.


Has anyone built a data connection to accomplish this?

Answers

  • Genevieve P.
    Genevieve P. Employee Admin
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    Hi @DianaMitchell

    Currently Smartsheet does not support dynamic waterfall dropdowns, where when one option is selected another column populates specific values relating to that option.

    Please add your vote and voice to this Product Idea thread: Dynamic dropdowns - Waterfall request

    In the meantime, if your users are working directly in the sheet, then what I would personally do in this situation is use a formula to display in a locked helper column the options they could choose from in the next column (a sort of reference list). I would build this out with an IF statement:

    • If option 1 is selected, populate values 1, 2, 3
    • If option 2 is selected, populate values 4, 5, 6

    If your users are filling out a Form, I would leverage Conditional Logic to show completely different fields based on their first selection. I would create multiple dropdown columns, each with the unique set of deliverables, but hide them in the sheet (showing one master-list that uses a formula to display what was selected through the Form). Does that make sense?

    Cheers,

    Genevieve