Link a form inside a form

LyndaRousseau

Hi there !

Is there a way to link a form inside a form ?

Example: I need to collect information about new project's ideas and in the form, I have a grid to gather information on different providers that could provide for the project. So each time a form is filled, this grid has to be filled too.

Any idea how to do that else than creating extra columns to capture this info ? (provider #1, phone #1, email #1 - Provider #2, phoe #2, email #2 - etc.)

Thanks a lot !!

Brian_Richardson

Yeah, it would be great if you could include tables of data into the form, but you cannot.

One approach is to keep the form simple to just the initial ideas, then send an automation alert back to the user upon "row add", with a link to a report or sheet and ask them to continue their data collection in that format.

Or like you said, if you want to do it all via form then you're looking at provider 1, provider 1 phone, provider 2, provider 2 phone etc etc. Which is pretty painful.

LyndaRousseau

@Brian_Richardson

Oh ! I like this idea of an automation with a link to another sheet ! :) But the sheet would have to be unique for each initial filled form. How ?

And I was wondering how the link is working in the form fields ?

Thanks a lot !!

Brian_Richardson

You don’t need a unique sheet for each submission, just use the same sheet and leverage report grouping and filters to view the data you need.

You could even use the same sheet as the submissions, just ask people to insert and indent the remaining data rows underneath their submission.

Or if you want a separate sheet you can use Data Mesh to create a row with the submission identifier on it and ask people to indent there.

Or you could use Data Shuttle or Bridge to update a dropdown column in the second sheet to add the identifier as a selection, then have people submit their data and select the correct identifier for each row.

LyndaRousseau

@Brian_Richardson

Tx Brian ! :)

Actually, people in my organisation are pretty new to SMARTSHEET and I can't ask them to play with rows in a sheet. Or at least, I must restrain this to their own submission sheet.

SO ! I finally created 9 submission sheets, one for each direction, and I added a logic field in my form asking which direction they represent. Then according to which direction, I bring up a field containing the right link to the direction sheet. (Not sure I'm clear here… :P).

In the form designer:

In the final form:

And for the purpose of managing it all after all, I created a report gathering information from those 9 sheets.

I'll give it a try and I'll adjust it if necessary. But still curious about other ways to do this !

Thanks a lot !!

Lynda :)

Brian_Richardson

I mean- it’s a spreadsheet. Surely people can figure out how to type into cells like Excel.

You can always give them a Board view by appending view=board to the URL. That gives them cards to drag drop, and plus buttons that open a side panel “form” for data entry. They might find that more intuitive.

Another option is Dynamic View which you can lock in to show people only their stuff and allow them to edit and add items using a side panel form with logic controls.

LyndaRousseau

@Brian_Richardson Thanks for the info ! But I VERRRRY visual, so I don't know exactly how to do all this. :/