Customized Buttons in Dashboard/Portal

Maxim Lobko

After seeing very nice dashboard presented in Best in Class Project Management video I tried to start developing something similar for our organization. However I'm struggling with creating customized buttons (like "Home", "Portfolio Dashboard", "Departments" etc) that you can see on the top of the dashboard that is used in video.

First I tried Text widget, but then noticed that it doesn't allow to add any interactions to it... Why actually?

Then I tried Rich Text widget, but it has same limitation. Even though you can create a hyperlink as part of the text, but then then text comes always as underlined and it doesn't look any longer like a nice button. Finally I created texts in power point, saved those as PNG files and uploaded using image widgets, but the quality of the text became not sharp after re-scaling.

What would be the best method to create buttons that support interactions within Smartsheet portal?

BTW, does anyone know if such Portal/Dashboard like the one shown in the video is available as a set of templates?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Andrée Starå

Hi Maxim,

You can create nice looking pictures/texts with services like Canva or similar.

Would that work?

I don't know of any Dashboards that are similar to the one in the video, unfortunately.

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Andrée Starå

I'll get back to the post if I find any Dashboards/Portals that I can share with you.

Paul Newcome

It looks to me like they are using image widgets with an interaction. I didn't watch the entire video, but I did notice that it was recorded BEFORE switching over to each sheet having it's own URL. I am not sure if any other changes may have affected the actual usability of features shown in the video.

Maxim Lobko

actually all I need at the moment is a efficient way to implement custom buttons in Smartsheet/Portals.

Yesterday I discovered that I can use Metric Widget in order to implement button. I use text rather then number in the cell that I link via Metric Widget. I use center aligned Large layout and Use Cell Formating. The only drawback is that the size of the text appears too big related to the size of the button and I cannot change it to allow wider borders. Example is in the attached screenshot. 

I wish either Title widget would allow to add interactions to it or Rich Text widget would allow to put the text in some type of a form (rectangular, circle etc) that can be filled etc. This way I could use those widgets in order to generate text buttons.

 

Andrée Starå

Yes, Metric widget works excellent as well.

To be able to use the Title widget would be a great addition to Smartsheet features.

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

Paul Newcome

I forgot about the metrics widget. Good thinking. 

 

If you create a set of cells on a sheet, you can "Add Data" to pull the button text. You can then choose the option to not display a title and it should have the white background behind the text. Using a white background on the dashboard would then essentially hide the widget borders.

Matthew Potts

For custom buttons that load a link, I like to find images on google image search, save the image to my desktop, then add the image to my dashboard and change the interaction on the image to open whatever it is I want. For example, I have used an image of an email to load a customer "contact us" form, or the image of someones headshot to link users to that employees profile on our intraweb. I hope that helps.

Malinda Lynn

I create buttons by using a word document. I use the font I like then I take a screenshot. Crop it to the size I want then I save it and use the picture widget. It is a convoluted way to get a button in Smartsheet to look nice but it works! I also use the adobe creative cloud desk top to create some interesting buttons although I'm not very familiar with the product, I am learning.

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