Why is a text field only appearing in automation responses as the column title and not row contents?

sricha01

Hello - newbie to Smartsheet! Have reached a roadblock I hope I can get your help with.

I am automating a report sent to a manager after their team member completes a Smartsheet form. The team member is assessing their ability on a scale of 1-4 against various role requirements. Due to form limitations on the number of characters on dropdown menus, I have to only include 1, 2, 3, 4 as the options, and list the scale's descriptions for each requirement in the explanation text under the question. This has meant I've had to use an INDEX COLLECT formula to cross-ref each 1,2,3,4 answer with their relevant description in a new column at the sheet level, which can then be included as a field in the automation.

So, column headings could be:

NAME - Task 1 Level - Task 1 Level scale label - Task 2 level - Task 2 level scale label ….

John - 2 - L2 intermediate at X - 4 - L4 Expert at X, Y and Z

Jane - 1 - L1 Basic understanding - 4 - L4 Expert at X, Y and Z

I then select the fields "Task 1 level scale label" to be included in the automated report

The formula used to cross-reference the scale labels to auto fill from a directory sheet is:

=IFERROR(INDEX(COLLECT({Cross-referencing label directory Range 1}, {Cross-referencing label directory Range 2}, "Task 1", {Cross-referencing label directory Range 3}, [Task 1 level]@row), 1), "")

When running dummy form completions to check it works however, instead of getting the cell contents' for each entry, I'm only seeing the column heading "Task 1 level scale label", and not the "L2 intermediate at X"… info.

Is this because formulae do not translate across in automation emails? Do I need to create a third column somehow that copies the formula column contents as just text. for example?

sricha01

UPDATE - it is now working… might just have needed some time for everything to sync up. Fun fun fun!

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/129651/why-is-a-text-field-only-appearing-in-automation-responses-as-the-column-title-and-not-row-contents

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

Excellent! I'm glad you got it working!

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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