Is it possible to send reminders to email addresses collected by form submission from non users?

Isis Taylor

brianschmidt

Yes, this is possible. You will just want to be sure the column collecting the email addresses is formatted as a contact column. Additionally, in your workflow settings for the sheet, you'll want to select "Unrestricted" to ensure unlicensed, unshared email addresses can be sent those requests.

Will Jeffords

Hi @Isis Taylor, yes this is possible as I understand your question. Others may have better ways to accomplish, but I have often created a Contact Type column in my sheet adjacent to the column where the emails are collected (from the form) and simply use the formula "=[email]@row" to populate the new Contact column. This way, when you go to create automations (alerts, update requests, etc.) you will be able to select the Contact column fields for your reminders.

Let me know if you need to get a quick demo of this!

All my best,

Will

Isis Taylor

Thanks for the quick feedback @Will Jeffords and @brianschmidt. I'm going try that. I did change the settings to unrestricted on the automation, so I will double check my email column.

Will Jeffords

@Isis Taylor , I think there may be merit in doing the helper Contact column by formula for at least the ability to retain the email format checking that you can get in your Form when you are using a text field for the entry. Is that your experience @brianschmidt ? I feel like I have also used this method because Contact fields on a Form can be tricky if the email is not already "known" to my Smartsheet instance (maybe?)?

Let us know how it turns out Isis!

Isis Taylor

I tried adding the additional column with the formula and re-running my automation. All internal email addresses licensed or not (none are shared to the sheet), received the confirmation email. However, none of the external email addresses received the confirmation. So, I'm thinking that is the problem.

brianschmidt

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/436166#Comment_436166

@Will Jeffords Yeah, I can see the value there. I like having the contact field be in the form. This way, as long as it's not a multi-select contact column, you can set up that form field's validation to check that the email was entered in a recognizable email format…which ultimately helps ensure any automations are able to send to the contact in that cell.

Will Jeffords

@brianschmidt thanks! I forgot that you have the "email validation" option on the Contact field type in the form - so that is definitely a plus with that route. What I just realized that I have experienced that drove me to use the Text field type is that I did not want to reveal the other emails that are in that sheet vis-a-vis the dropdown that necessarily shows up in the Form when you use the Contact field type (big privacy concerns - especially with GDPR, etc.). Am I missing a way to hide those other emails to my form fillers when using the Contact field type on the Form? Ps. I love it when I answer questions and then end up learning exponentially from the ensuing discussions!!

brianschmidt

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/436195#Comment_436195

@Will Jeffords Haha, I can totally relate. Whether it's figuring out how to answer a question or ensuing conversation, I love this aspect of the Smartsheet community pages.

To address your privacy concerns, it only has the "Contact" column as a dropdown in the form if you've put in contacts in the "add contacts" section of the column setup. Otherwise, the field in the form remains blank. Also, even if you have contacts in that section, it will only display the contacts you have added there as options, not any other inputs in the sheet. In the screenshots below is an example of a column that has multiple emails in various cells but only one dropdown contact added. Then, the second screenshot is a sample form with two contact fields, "Email/Contact" is the column referenced above and the "Contact" field has no contacts added as options, so that you can see how they represent themselves differently in the form.

Hope this helps!:)

Will Jeffords

@brianschmidt terrific! Thanks for the detailed clarification on what does and doesn’t show up under those conditions! Very helpful indeed!