Is there a way to restrict visibility of a column to specific people?

darrink

We want to add a column to our smartsheet that has data that we only want to be seen by a subset of the contributors to the smartsheet. Is it possible to have a column with limited visibility?

Kelly Moore

Hey @darrink

Other community members may weigh in with alternate options.

In using basic smartsheet functionality, the short answer is sort of. You could keep the column hidden in the sheet and make sure all your collaborators were at a permission level of Editor or below. Editors and below cannot unhide columns. You could build a report for your collaborators that need to see the data and share that report only to them. Reports show any selected column, regardless if it is hidden or not hidden. Since edits to reports feed back to the sheet itself, one can use a report for data entry. If the collaborators that need to see are 'view only' with all the row data, one could create a separate sheet and see the data to a new sheet and just keep that column unhidden on that sheet. If the row data is dynamic, one would have to create cross functional formulas on the new sheet to keep the data current. Depending on the sheet, this could be a lot of formulas and potentially run into sheet limitations. This would not be my choice of solutions.

If your license allows access to dynamic view, you have more granulated options in what different 'roles' can see, and even when they can see it. This is the most robust way to limit visibility of data The *premier app WorkApps provides some report permission functionality above basic functionality.

Would basic reports work for you if the column was hidden?

Kelly