How to show 5 different sets of checkboxes in same column?

22Wordsmith

Hi,

I'm putting together a slightly complex master sheet for Dynamic View. It needs to show something like 5 different sets of checkboxes in the same column. I'm thinking I can achieve this either by creating 5 sheets, each showing the individual checkboxes OR a single sheet with the various sets of info in individual columns. I'd then bring these into the single column of my mastersheet with a MATCH/INDEX function.

Before I dive in, I thought I'd see if anyone had other suggestions or could recommend which was the better option for storing/retrieving the data.

Many thanks.

Andrée Starå

@22Wordsmith

Ok. Then I'd recommend creating multiple columns, one for each of the different groups of options, and then use formulas and conditional formatting to guide the user to the correct one. You could collect the data from them in another column.

Make sense?

Would it work?

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Andrée Starå

Hi @22Wordsmith

I hope you're well and safe!

Can you share some screenshots or a mockup? (Please delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing.) That would make it easier to help.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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22Wordsmith

@Andrée Starå

I've made this in Word but it should serve to show what I'm hoping to achieve in Smartsheet.

Nick Korna

Hi @22Wordsmith,

You can somewhat do this. If your subject data is in tick box columns, then you can use a formula to combine them and using wrap:

The formula in the Subjects column being:

=IF(Reading@row = 1, "Reading " + UNICHAR(128505) + CHAR(10), "") + IF(Writing@row, "Writing " + UNICHAR(128505) + CHAR(10), "") + IF(Arithmetic@row, "Arithmetic " + UNICHAR(128505), "")

The CHAR(10) bit does the line break, hence why it isn't required in the final case, if you wanted a different tick then find one which suits you and substitute in the unichar value.

Hope this helps, but if I've misunderstood something or you've any problems/questions then let us know!

22Wordsmith

Hi @Nick Korna

I think that's almost what I need... except, the checkboxes would actually be blank, to be completed later in Dynamic View by another user. What I need to show for that other user is the whole list of elements they need to cover off over time - represented by subjects in my example.

Grateful for any other thoughts you might have on this.

ker9

@22Wordsmith perhaps I'm not completely understanding, but couldn't you make the column a multi-select with dropdowns listing the various options and select only the items that apply?

Andrée Starå

@22Wordsmith

Could you use a multi-select column where each option has a selection checkbox?

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Nick Korna

I'm not sure it'd be possible to have multiple functional tick boxes in a single column. However, if your individual subject columns are in the dynamic view sheet then you can use the formula above to get the output.

How are you determining which subjects a particular person would need to do? Is this taken from a dropdown (for example) or several sources?

22Wordsmith

@Andrée Starå I can make a checkbox column with multiple select, but I wanted to customise the options for the various users' focus. Using my original example above, I wanted Tom to only see the options English, French and German, not the whole list of subjects being studied by others.

22Wordsmith

@Nick Korna There's another column that will identify the corresponding multiple responses. Using my student example, it would be a column that flagged Tom as studying Languages to draw in the English, French, German options. Similarly, Jane's subject tag (for want of a better term) would be Basics.

Andrée Starå

@22Wordsmith

Ok. Then I'd recommend creating multiple columns, one for each of the different groups of options, and then use formulas and conditional formatting to guide the user to the correct one. You could collect the data from them in another column.

Make sense?

Would it work?

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up/Awesome or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!