What exactly trigger different alerts? The labels stink!

John M Lee

Alert 1:

If you select Create a new rule and Alert Someone you receive a pop-up that has a top line of 

'Trigger: When a row is added or changed" and the next line is 

            When Any field changes

If I press Save I see the alert with a description of 'When a row is added or changed' but nothing about any field being changed.  When you press Edit you see 'Any field'.

Alert 2:

If I select Create new rule and select A Comment then I don't get an option to have an alert for Any field BUT when I press save I see 2 lines of the alert:

          'When a row is added or changed 

           When a comment is added or changed'

Is there supposed to be an AND or an OR between line 1 and line 2?

 

To be alerted of any change on a sheet AND any row comment, do I have to build 2 alerts or just the second alert above?

 

Isaac Jose

Hello John, 

Thanks for your post! I'm happy to clarify a bit about alerts and actions. When building an alert, you'll see three blocks in the workflow editor:

1. Trigger - At the top of the alert, you'll define the trigger. This is the specific change that will cause the alert or action to execute. Within the trigger block, there are five types of triggers (below). Additionally, under the trigger-type defined in the blue section of this block, you can define a specific change. For example, you may only want to trigger the alert when the Status column is changed, rather than triggering the alert every time any change is made.
   • On a specific date - Send an alert on a specific date or based on a date column
   • When a row is added or changed - Send an alert when a row is added to the sheet or when an existing row is modified
   • When a row is added - Send an alert when a row is added to the sheet
   • When a row is changed - Send an alert when an existing row is modified
   • When a row is deleted - Send an alert when a row is deleted
2. Condition - In the center, you can select "Add a condition to filter rows" to filter which rows are included in alerts that are triggered by the alert. This is the section that you would use in conjunction with AND or OR operators to define which conditions must be met for the alert or action to be sent. For example, an alert may be triggered when a comment is made on a row, but you can add a condition such that the alert is only sent if the Status of the row is not "Complete."
3. Action - At the bottom, you can define your action or alert's recipients, frequency, custom messages, and other advanced settings.

More information about alerts and actions can be found in the following help articles:

• Automate Your Work With Alerts and Actions
• Control Who Is Notified About Alerts and Requests
• Dynamically Add Cell Data in the Subject and Body of Alert Messages
• Edit, Disable, or Delete an Alert

I hope this helps!

Isaac J