Project Summary Report to contain comment history

Brooke D.

Is there a way to run a summary report that displays all the comments on the sheet for each row, not just the latest comment for the row. I have users that need to see the comment history in one report instead of having to click on each line in a sheet to open the comments. I really don't want to have to try exporting this information to excel and then share another file. I need a click and run report to be automatically distributed.

MarceHolzhauzen

Hi @Brooke D.

There is no inherent way for you to get all of the comments posted to a cell. There are some tricks you can try with Bridge (if you have it) or, if you have appetite for creating a custom application, we have an inhouse developer that can help you with that.

Let me know :-)

Brooke D.

Marce - I would like to explore this further.

MarceHolzhauzen

Hi @Brooke

Great, let's meet up and see how I can help.

You can let me know what date and time works for you or just schedule a meeting in my calendar at a date and time that works for you Check my availability

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/132151/project-summary-report-to-contain-comment-history

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Marcé's excellent advice/answer.

Here's an option I often use when my client needs this.

You'd use a combination of workflow and cross-sheet formulas. Try something like this.

1️⃣ You need to have a unique identifier column in the main sheet (auto number column or similar)

2️⃣ You'd add a so-called helper sheet, and you can call it a Comment Log or something else

3️⃣ You'd add a copy row workflow that triggers from when a comment has been added to the latest comment column and then copies that row to the log sheet

4️⃣ In the main sheet where you want to show the log of comments, you'd add a formula using an INDEX COLLECT combination to collect them together (if you hit limits on how many comments can be shown, it's possible to add more columns to show more of the comments from the log

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Brooke D.

Andree - thanks for the response. I would need someone to walk me through this. 😀

MarceHolzhauzen

Hi @Andrée Starå

Thanks for that breakdown.

We have had success with this method as it copies the comment's over, but there are a few snags to it - have you done this before and if so, how have you managed to get this showing up decently?

1. The Latest comment column does not include the date/time when the comment was made

2. The Latest comment column does not respect hierarchies in terms of new comments vs responses to existing comments. Which in turn, could possibly confuse the sequence and context of the comments.

3. We have had instances where 2 comments were made to the row just as the automation was running so one of the comments did not have time to copy across.

4. Joining the comments together using a formula has the last word of the previous comment and first word of the next comment joined as one. Making it hard to read.

I haven't used INDEX(COLLECT() for this purpose, but rather JOIN(COLLECT() as I have found that the INDEX part of the formula limits you to a specific entry (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc). Do you have a way to use INDEX without the level of the row_index