Workspaces Pros & Cons

Dan Seidler

I have read many posts in regards to how to use Workspaces, but I am having trouble locating a list of pitfalls, and/or situations where Workspaces may not work, compared to our situation.  Would you mind sharing your insights and experiences?

Due to the nature of the individual projects of "Client A", with time frames from 2 days to 2 months, we decided to keep all projects within a single, master sheet.  Users updated an assigned Report, which they accessed from an assigned Dashboard.  Once the project was in an "As-Built Completed" state, we then archive the project (Parent & Children) by moving it to another sheet (losing its formulas).  We did not use a Workspace for the following reasons:

1. Carte blanche permissions

2. Creating a Workspace folder for each project would make the Home tab quite large

3. Based on #2, we prefer a simple centralization of information by providing a Drafter Dashboard for our Drafters, Engineering Dashboard for our Engineers, etc.  From my understanding, linking from the Dashboard to the newly-added Workspaces would be a manual effort for each added project (providing a link).

Here's the driver for my question... We have a new client where projects will take 2 months to 1 year.  Should we focus on Workspaces for these types of projects?  If we do go to Workspaces for "Client B", then we would be asking our employees to find their work in two different locations  (granted manipulating existing Reports may help with "some" of it).

Again, any insight you may provide would be most appreciated.  Thank you.

Dan Seidler

To add upon this, if we were to use a Workspace for each project, is there a way to automate the addition of a link for the new Workspace to a specific Dashboard?  If possible, then a list of active Workspace projects could still be accessed from a single User Dashboard.

Andrée Starå

Hi Dan,

In general, I prefer working with Workspaces and especially with clients. Here are some reasons why (there are more):

• Easier to share initially, to new people and also remove sharing to everything in the project
• Backup, you can't backup individual folders except for the personal Sheets folder
• Reporting is also easier because everything you add to the workspace will be included automatically if you want it to

If possible and if it makes sense I try to keep everything in one sheet or as few sheets as possible because the solution will be easier to maintain.

The choice between Folder, Sheet or Workspace depends, on the project, use case and specific needs. If you can have control on the new longer projects in one sheet, I would try that, and you can always create a Workspace later if needed.

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to automate the addition of a link of a new Workspace to the dashboard.

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

I hope this helps you!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting