Copying Data from Locked Cell as Editor

dhills922

My team is looking to lock a cell so that only admin's and owners can edit the column, but we need our other team members with Editor permissions to be able to at least copy and paste the cell and have the data move with it to a new row. Currently, an Editor cannot copy the cell and paste and have the data show up in the pasted location. Is there a workaround for this to ensure our Editors can copy locked cells and use for templated rows?

KPH

Hi @dhills922

The checkbox that triggers the copy automation can itself be automatically unchecked as the last step in the automation - you don't need to have the admin or owner uncheck it. If it needs to be checked again, it can be.

Another option is to keep the data in another sheet and reference it. That way, if someone does edit it, you have the original. You could set up an automation to alert you if the "special" column is edited.

KPH

Could you add a check box to the row and set up an automation to run when the box is checked, and have that automation perform the copy?

dhills922

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/432175#Comment_432175

Thank you for responding! I'm not sure I could do that where the data that is being copied isn't always the same each time. For example, we perform engineering studies that have a set number of days that it must be completed in. Sometimes, after the study is done, we have to do another study. The way our template is designed, the editor would copy and paste the previous study line that contains specific baselines and language and then alter the start and end date. The locked cell is the set number of days is should be completed in. We call it "Planned Duration." The Planned Duration is needed for a variance column of +/- how many days the project goes over or under the required number of days. This is needed for reporting purposes.

Our template may or may not require the line to be copied again so not sure if having an automation would help unless it was checked off by an admin or owner? I'm only seeing one of two options: 1. give everyone admin permissions, which we don't want due to human error, or 2. unlock the column and hope nobody overwrites the data.

Wondering if there is a way to lock the data within the locked cell almost like an embedded piece of data?

KPH

Hi @dhills922

The checkbox that triggers the copy automation can itself be automatically unchecked as the last step in the automation - you don't need to have the admin or owner uncheck it. If it needs to be checked again, it can be.

Another option is to keep the data in another sheet and reference it. That way, if someone does edit it, you have the original. You could set up an automation to alert you if the "special" column is edited.

dhills922

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/432922#Comment_432922

Those options are perfect! Thank you so much for your help!

KPH

That's great - perfection is the aim!