Question on showing text (comments) from cells in dashboard

mwiggins

Hello Community, 

 

I have a form which people fill out and the numerical data from which is analyzed and then put up on charts in a dashboard. However, part of the form is a text box where they can type in comments about the material. 

Is there a way (possibly through a report?) to have a widget that shows comments people wrote in the form on the dashboard? 

 

Please let me know your ideas on the best way to do this!

 

Thank you

Andrée Starå

Hi,

Yes, you could show them in a report on the dashboard.

Would that work for you?

I hope this helps you!

Best,

Andrée Starå - Workflow Consultant @ Get Done

mwiggins

It does help - however, the question now is how to use a report that will pull only certain columns with text. 

 

That's a basic ability that I'll have to learn myself and lookup more, it's not exactly worth a hand-holding walk through on the community comments but if there are any tips or tricks that you (or anyone else reading this) knows of then I would be highly appreciative. 

 

Thank you for the speedy reply!

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Did you get a solution working?

Best,

Andrée

Virginia F

Can you explain how someone would do this? 

Andrée Starå

Hi Virginia,

Absolutely!

Can you describe your process in more detail? That would make it easier to help.

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Christi Lowe

Virginia, 

Looks like Andree would like to help you with project specific assistance. However, on a general level, you would just create a report that pulls from the sheet where your information is housed, and select the column where the text comments are housed. If that's all you want to show, then you need only include that column. Once created, you would go to your dashboard and create a widget that pulls from the report. The comments will then show on your dashboard. 

Christi Lowe

Hi Andree, 

I understand how you would pull comments from a text column onto a dashboard, but is there a way to pull comments (made in the comments column) and display them in a dashboard? We provide updates regarding projects in the form of comments in the comment column (the smartsheet provided one on the far left, not a text column built into the sheet). I would like to pull those comments and display them in full text on a dashboard, but don't see a way to pull them into a report so I can display them on the dashboard. Any thoughts?

Andrée Starå

Hi Christi,

The third-party service, Zapier is an excellent option for this scenario. Is that an option for you?

 

Andrée Starå

If this works for the use case, it would be my recommended and most straightforward method, as well.

Christi Lowe

I'm not familiar with Zapier. Am I correct in my understanding that you're recommending a third party service to get one smartsheet item to connect with another smartsheet item? That seems inefficient, and I feel it's silly to pay for a third party service to get smartsheet to communicate with itself. 

Andrée Starå

That's correct!

It could also be possible with the Smartdheet API, and then you'll stay within the Smartsheet ecosystem. Is that an option?

 

Hammermill21

@Andree Stara,

How would you do this in Zapier? I tried but doesn't seem to work.

 

Thanks,

Elizabeth

 

Andrée Starå

Hi Elizabeth,

In short, this is how the Zapier ZAP would be structured.

• New Comment in Smartsheet
• Dealy for 1 min (more if needed)
• New row update in Smartsheet

Make sense?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD