why the Primary Column defaults to "Sheet Name" for every single Summary Report?

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Using Summary Report With Only One Sheet.

ValerieQ

Any idea why the Primary Column defaults to "Sheet Name" for every single Summary Report? I have a Summary Report that only has ONE sheet, so having the Primary Column default to Sheet Name (and not allow me to remove the column because it's the primary…which can't be removed) is ruining a chart on my Dashboard by making it nonsensical. I either have to have the one-and-only "Sheet Name" be the label for the entire chart and have it all be one color, or Sheet Name has to be the first bar in my graph if I want the bars to be different colors. It makes absolutely no sense.

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

Hi @Valerie

First, you can edit the Primary Column's name, as shown below.

Smartsheet sets the default name of the Primary Column in a Summary Report as "Sheet Name" because Summary Reports are typically used to aggregate data across multiple sheets. Since the primary column from each sheet may contain different types of data (e.g., task names, project names, etc.), it's not practical for Smartsheet to use one of them as the report's primary column. Instead, it defaults to "Sheet Name" as a consistent, common identifier across all sheets.

Even if you're using only one sheet in your report, Smartsheet still uses "Sheet Name" as the default primary column for consistency. Fortunately, you can edit the column name, although you can't remove it entirely. This design enables flexibility for broader use cases involving multiple sheets.

Second, in the chart widget, you can select which column to include.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=a7fe8c805377410994884fa3ccac1456

Regarding the colors, I tested and found that if you use the pie chart, you can choose the colors. (I selected as value label the amount, in place of the percentage.)