What view are you? Share your story and claim your badge

Rebeca S.

Hello Smartsheet Community,

We love reading stories about the meaningful change you’re driving at work. 

Everyone has their own way of managing work, right? That's why we've ensured you always have a Smartsheet view that fits your needs.  We want to hear how you are using Smartsheet and how it may change depending on the project, who's involved, or your personal preference. 

Tell us, which view are you? 

Leave a comment below sharing which view(s) you use most often and why. We will award the badge(s) that align with your preferred view(s) to showcase on your profile soon after.

Whether you choose:

Timeline view to get the big picture and manage the details all in one place

Board view with it’s visual layout that lets you easily track the status and progress of project on a Kanban board

Grid view where you can manage detailed data in a familiar spreadsheet interface

Gantt view for clear project timelines

Calendar view to see your information laid out on a working calendar

Or a unique combination of views to gain actionable insights tailored to your needs — we want to know.

More about Smartsheet views: 

• NEW Timeline view: Timeline view empowers teams to visualize and manage date-based work in real time. By visualizing tasks along a timeline and grouping information to easily track project components, teams can instantly get the big picture and adjust details with ease.  With Timeline view, you can visualize project timelines, group items by theme, edit in context, react to changes in real-time, and more.

• NEW Board view: Board view allows users to track projects, manage tasks, and prioritize work on a visual Kanban board. It features an all-new, modern look and feel, and key new functionality to make working on a board faster, easier, and more collaborative than ever. Board view facilitates collaboration by displaying changes made by other users in real time (including newly added or deleted cards and any updates to card titles or their fields.)

• Grid View: Grid view with its familiar spreadsheet-like interface, is particularly useful for users who are accustomed to working with spreadsheets but require more advanced project management functionalities. Its versatility makes it suitable for a wide range of applications, from simple task tracking to complex project management.

• Gantt View: Gantt view is a dynamic tool designed for visual project management and timeline tracking. It transforms your project details into a comprehensive, easy-to-read Gantt chart – essentially a horizontal bar chart that displays a project schedule. It’s great for understanding task relationships and managing dependencies.

• Calendar View: Calendar view takes your date based tasks and lays them out across a calendar. This view offers a time-based perspective on tasks and projects and  is ideal for managing schedules and deliverables at a high level.

eliweitz

I'm a huge fan of grid view (and a bit of board view as well!) Grid view is used all over my work, and it provides a useful matrix for organizing data and information. Board view, on the other hand, provides some useful kanban-ing toolsets, which I hope to use more in organizing tasks in the future!

Zachary Ziegler

I prefer Gantt view, as having the visual overlap of tasks helps to reduce overallocation of resources that might be on two concurrent tasks. I usually start on Grid view though when I am just setting things up for the first time. Whenever tasks inevitably have to be rescheduled, viewing in Gantt helps me see any complications before they arise though so therefore I am Gantt view :)

Leroy Noriega

I use Grid, Gantt, and Calendar view. In the Grid view I add in as much information as I possibly can to the project plans, Budget sheets, PO sheets, etc. with multiple helper columns to make reporting/metrics easier to capture. Gantt view is used along side the project plan, provides a nice visual to all the project managers. Calendar view is used in our dashboard to provide a simplistic view of when the project managers are traveling/testing their projects. The combination of these three views has significantly improved our process🙌

Paul Newcome

Grid View for me. I work with formulas and helper columns A LOT.

Isis Taylor

I use Grid, Timeline, and Gantt views most often. Grid view for the majority of custom sheets that I create, and Gantt & Timeline for any project that I am managing. I also like to use Gantt view on project and portfolio dashboards.

I can't wait to try Board view.

Julia King

Love me a grid view but find Gantt better for seeing predecessors!

Mark.poole

I use Grid view for a large majority of my projects. and calendar view for a close second.

Nick Korna

Largely grid view for myself, due to need for formulas in various columns.

Erin Horiuchi Green

They are ALL my favorite depending on what Projects I am multi-tasking at the time. Can I get ALL the badges?

Timeline View is best for monitoring the Adult Learning Project requests across my Instructional Designers at the aggregated level.

Board View is best for monitoring Sprints with the DEV team.

Grid View is best for monitoring Pilot Tester Test Scripts for UAT prior to Production Release.

Gannt View is best for monitoring the Adult Learning Project requests across my Instructional Designers at the individual level.

Calendar View is best for monitoring OOOs and Scope Creep. Time is money and value perception is sensitive per Stakeholder.

RebSchr

I use all the views - it all depends on who my audience is - it typically follows this order. First I build my data out in grid view, then I look at the overall timeline. Once I start a project, I look at the tasks in Gannt View to see where we can overlap some tasks. Then I use the calendar view to make sure my resources are available and what their schedules look like. Lastly, I use the board view to help visually look at capacity and prioritizes.

Grid View - Its where all my details live and is my default go-to view - My metrics, my projects, all of my core data lives in the grid view.

Timeline View - Great for looking at the overall timeline of multiple projects to see where things will overlap.

Gannt View - How can a project be a project without having this view?

Calendar View - we use this to see is is available and who is on PTO - nicely integrates into other views

Board View - When looking at workload and seeing who has capacity is visually displayed via the board view. I also use it when we prioritize open issues that need to be resolved.

Julia L Rumburg

🎉While I appreciate the versatility of all the views Smartsheet offers, Card View is my happy place!😍 I love how it allows me to focus on one task 📝at a time, while still seeing the bigger picture🌍. This means that I 😍 the new Board View - drag and drop is cool to me as I finish up each task!

Matt Lynn-PCG

Grid view… formulas make all other Smartsheet features my servant, including all the other views.

Peggy Parchert

I am trying to get better at using all the views - mostly I use Grid views. I have started looking at Timeline View and find it helpful for looking at the big picture of things. We use Gantt  for some of our project plans if we need to get granular. I have used the Calendar View for our Team OOO. I’m looking at possible uses for Board View as well - it is newer. 

ray79th

That's like asking which of your children is your favorite! I use all of them, but my home is grid view.

Will Duplex

As a project manager, I use each of these views – however it’s contingent on what I’m trying to accomplish, who I’m involving, and how I’m trying to visualize/process data. The Grid View is my default for determining where/how I want to start mapping out a project and determine the appropriate data points. I’ve found that for most users in my company, this is the view that they are most familiar with. For my personal projects, I utilize the Calendar View to plan out deadlines for different tasks as well as incorporating dates for meetings with project stakeholders. The Gaant View helps me see each task as it aligns with the upcoming weeks for the overall project timeline and is a core aspect of project planning for myself and other project managers in my company. I’ve recently begun using the Timeline View and it’s been helpful when working with a new CFT that sees a lot of changes in deadlines and shifting priorities – sometimes by the hour.

Not mentioned here is the Card View, but this was my go-to for setting up ownership “lanes” with various thresholds of approval for a recurring process within an already implemented project. This view was crucial as I helped teach and train my backfill for my previous role, ensuring that there was a smooth transition for this existing process. More recently, I’ve begun exploring the Board View and I was blown away when I started using it. Basically, it’s like Card View but even more enhanced with additional features and a very friendly UI. I’d compare the new Board View vs. Card View to the old Smartsheet vs. MS Excel debate – both have their functionality, but one is a lot more modern and has additional collaboration functionalities.

This is a long post, but each one of these views is helpful for me when managing projects and tasks and the way that I engage stakeholders and integrate my team members. While Grid View is a great default for every Smartsheet user, please explore each of the other views available! If you’re like me, this will save you a ton of time in the long run and really amplify your projects and overall workload.