Isolate User Entered Value in Multi select list

ktbsp

I have a multi-select list that looks like the below. My goal is to map form results to a PDF and I've used helper columns to turn the responses into checkboxes [formula for those: =HAS([Indicate the type of referral source]@row, "Yes, parent")]. However….I do not have the multi-select limited to my answers so that staff can enter in the value instead of a separate question to enter in the "please specify" relationship. Is there a way to isolate the value that is NOT contained in the original list? This is a multi-select which has made this difficult but if they select "Yes, child" and type in "friend", I would like the "friend" value to show up in a separate cell so that I can map that value to the text box below. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Kerry St. Thomas

I assume you're using a Form to collect information. With that understanding in place, the way that I've dealt with the "Other" situation you have here is to have an "Other Specify" column - hide it on the form and apply conditional logic that when Other is chosen from the dropdown, it shows "Specify."

In terms of the "Friend" conundrum, you could conceivably set up a really elaborate formula to search for "friend" and return what you'd eventually use to map to your PDF. But if you build that guardrail, I pretty much guarantee there's another guardrail that someone's going to crash through: people are good like that, and I almost wonder if it's worth the trouble. The ultimate solution is to NOT provide an "Other" option that's a freeflow form… someone's ALWAYS going to have an off-the wall answer that'll break any system.

I know, not a perfect answer. But an honest one. Good luck!