Assigned To Question

Kris V. Le

We manage projects for multiple clients and when add or change assigned to, a drop down menu shows every contact we've ever added, meaning across multiple clients.

The problem comes when we are sharing screen with a client and we change assigned to and that client can see other names/clients who may be competing businesses. Is there a way to limit what can be seen? Do I need a separate Workspaces for each client? I currently only operate two Workspaces, one for internal purposed and one for client facing purposes.

Georgie

Hi @Kris V. Le,

You can manage which contacts appear when you type into a cell - take a look here for more information. 

My suggestion would be to create separate demo sheets, one to be used for each client. You could save copies of an existing sheet and then remove data that shouldn’t be seen from each one. As the help article linked above states, names that appear when typing in a Contact List column include any contact values listed in the Column Properties, any users shared to the sheet, any users assigned to rows in the sheet, people in your Smartsheet contacts list, and users who are part of the same plan as you. 

Assuming that your clients are not part of the same plan as you, you could clear your personal My Smartsheet Contacts list, and then ensure that each demo sheet is shared to only contacts that you want to have appearing in the contact list, that all rows are assigned to only relevant contacts, and that the contact list column properties don’t include any contact values that shouldn’t be seen by that client. 

Hope that helps!

Georgie

Kris V. Le

Thanks, it seems it is the personal contact list that is causing the problem. Is there a setting to prevent picking from personal contacts list or is clearing the contacts list the only way?

Georgie

Hi @Kris V . Le,

An alternative (and likely better) option would be to restrict the contact list column to list values only and enter the contacts you want to keep visible within the column properties. 

To do this, double click on the column header (or right-click the column header and select Edit Column Properties), then click on the toggle next to “Restrict to list values only”. Then, enter all contacts you’d like clients to be able to see in that sheet and click Ok when you’re done - see below:

Check out this help article for more information: Keep consistency in data with dropdown columns.

Hope that helps!,

Georgie

Kris V. Le

So even when the column is restricted to List Values Only, when you go to type in any name within a contacts cell, as you type you are given suggestions which are not within that restricted list. I presume this is primarily coming from my personal contacts list.

My challenge is that even if I clear my personal contacts list, it rebuilds over time as I add new contacts to new sheets. It's just a bit of a pain for us….

I have no issues when clients are interacting with the sheet, they will only see those shared to the sheet. But when we are having calls with them and working through the project plan and assigning responsibilities, they see that drop down on the screen share pop up, even if only for a moment, and then they can see potentially other clients we work with.

Georgie

Hi @Kris V . Le, 

I see what you mean. Having gone back and tested this again I see the same behaviour. It’s not currently possible to prevent contacts from your My Smartsheet Contacts list showing when changing the value in a Contact List column. 

If you were to demo a report using the sheet as the source sheet, and the contact list column in the source sheet is restricted to list values, the contact list in the report will only display the listed values when changing the value in the column. 

However, I understand that you might be wanting to show the sheet to your clients rather than a report, so I’d recommend submitting your feature request to the Product team by creating an Idea Post in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic here in the Community. This will allow other users to vote on your enhancement idea! 

Thanks,

Georgie