Timeline view and Contact list

RayB

Hi Community

I have a simple 'conference register' for individuals of group to detail the conferences they will attend. The new timeline view meets their requirements perfectly. I have set up the timeline view on the Contact list column but the timeline view does not display in alphabetical order. Anyone know why this may be and how I can correct it?

Brian_Richardson

Like card view, any selection field that you group on will show in the order that the options are arranged in the column Properties. So you'll need to edit the contact column properties and rearrange the names into the order that you like.

The very first time you group by a contact column, if it doesn't already have the names preset as options, smartsheet will group contacts in the order that they appear in the sheet and will populate the contact column properties with that same order. From that point onward, even if you rearrange the contacts on the sheet, the group order will remain fixed to the order that the contacts are shown in the column properties.

Jason P

Hi @RayB

Contact list data is a straight pull of what's there & in the exact order names were entered, in timeline view it cannot be sorted or filtered to alphabetical. Its a great idea though. Next to the sheets name in time view click Help and Feedback and let them know.

Options. Rebuild the Contact list in alphabetical OR, and if I understand your goal, set up another column and apply some Assign people with automation. Columns [Client] text/number - {Team] Dropdown - [Group] group being your contact list.

Automation with conditional formatting will allow flexibility to change groups and also notify that groups leader of changes. In this example only when a client is entered you assign them a team number, leader of that team will be alerted. In timeline view you should now be able to Group Team and achieve the sort I think you're looking for.

Would this work for you?

RayB

Hi @Jason P

I did find the link between the order of adding names and how they appear but I did hope it wasn't a real effect :-(. The group membership is not static so re-entering is not an option. I do like the example you have provided - looks like automation is the only solution at the moment but a nice challenge to work out the logic. Thanks for your help 😀

RayB

Hi @Brian_Richardson

Thanks for the explanation - what happens when you add new members to your contact list?

Brian_Richardson

Frustratingly, the Grouping is locked into the list of people in the Contact Column properties, and once that list is created the first time by Timeline view, it doesn't automatically update. I just tested this out… the new assignee is shown as "Uncategorized" in Timeline view because they are not shown in the dropdown menu in properties.

I've opened an enhancement request for this as it seems to be a real problem, not how anyone would expect this to work! Feel free to vote it up.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/122464/timeline-view-should-group-existing-contacts-not-just-contacts-listed-in-column-properties

Jason P

Hey @RayB

To further make life easier pop the following formula in to your Team column, this will automatically place the group in to team numbers for the automation to run off. LOWER converts, in this case email addresses to all lowercase (we have some mixed) and CONTAINS looks for the "NAME" anywhere in the cell in GROUP column @the row. If adding another member simply add. IF(CONTAINS("NAME", LOWER(Group@row)), 4, 0)))) and so on and keep adding to your Automation condition path.

=IF(CONTAINS("ron", LOWER(Group@row)), 1, IF(CONTAINS("harry", LOWER(Group@row)), 2, IF(CONTAINS("hermione", LOWER(Group@row)), 3, 0)))

Hope this all helps

RayB

Thanks Jason - didn't help in this instance but I can see using your formula in other instances 😁

Thanks !

Ray