How to build a Training Calendar using SmartSheet that looks like this??

Jennie Victoriano

For each day, I need to indicate date, time, location, class, method, class role, trainer.    Any chance I can build something like this in SmartSheet.  Thank you in advance.

Calendar Questions to SmartSheet Community.docx

Genevieve P.

Hi Jennie,

You can set up "Copy Row" automations based on specific criteria (see this Help Center article).

For example, when the type of task contains "Training Event", then either Copy or Move the row to a Training Calendar sheet. If you set this up, it will copy each new row to the bottom of the other sheet (so it won't look like how I have it organized above - the rows would be moved or copied over in order of how they were inserted in the other sheet).

That said, you could choose to sort rows by the date, so they will be in the correct sequence even if the rows are copied over in a different order (click here for Sort Rows information).

In regards to multiple events on the same date, each event would still be its own row, there would just be two rows that are "Wednesday, June 10, 2020".

If you wanted to make sure that you could easily identify the days of the week, there are a number of solutions for how to do that. Personally, I like setting up Conditional Formatting rules... for example, you could have a "helper" column (one that you hide on the sheet) that looks at the Date/Day and returns a number representing the day of the week.

This would be a standard WEEKDAY formula. See below:

Then, you can set up a Conditional Formatting rule to change the colour of the cell depending on what weekday it is. There are many different formatting options, you don't have to change the cell colour, so choose what works best for you!

At this point, I would suggest that you start bringing in your data into Smartsheet and creating your sheets. Then once you have the basics set up, post in Community again with screen captures and your specific questions to figure out how to set up the next element, based on what you currently have built.

There are so many different ways to automate and customize your sheets, including numerous formulas! We're happy to help, but you'll likely receive the best answers/responses when there are images and current sheets to work off of versus talking about all the different potentials.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi Jennie,

Yes, you can build something similar to this in Smartsheet, however your columns and rows would be reversed.

For example, you would want to have a column be a Date Type column that lists, vertically, your days of the week. Then all of the criteria you have (Time, Training Style, etc) would each be their own column:

If the Date is the Date column type, you could even create reminders and alerts based off of that row to send out emails before the date is reached (click here for more information on alerts). I used a number of formatting tools to create the look as well (click here for more information).

Let me know if you have any specific questions about this and I'd be happy to help clarify further.

Cheers,

Genevieve

Jennie Victoriano

Genevieve,

Thanks so much!!  Follow up scenarios: 

On my project schedule, I plan to tag the task as a training event.  If it is a training event, then it needs to automatically go to the training calendar sheet as I want the project schedule to be the source of truth for all the training dates. 

Also, there will be times that there are 2 or more training activities on a specific day.  How can we accommodate for that?

Bottom line, I want the source of truth of all training tasks to be the project schedule but have this training calendar to represent all training activities we are doing including all the training details on a calendar type format that is "semi-automated".  

Is this even possible?

Genevieve P.

Hi Jennie,

You can set up "Copy Row" automations based on specific criteria (see this Help Center article).

For example, when the type of task contains "Training Event", then either Copy or Move the row to a Training Calendar sheet. If you set this up, it will copy each new row to the bottom of the other sheet (so it won't look like how I have it organized above - the rows would be moved or copied over in order of how they were inserted in the other sheet).

That said, you could choose to sort rows by the date, so they will be in the correct sequence even if the rows are copied over in a different order (click here for Sort Rows information).

In regards to multiple events on the same date, each event would still be its own row, there would just be two rows that are "Wednesday, June 10, 2020".

If you wanted to make sure that you could easily identify the days of the week, there are a number of solutions for how to do that. Personally, I like setting up Conditional Formatting rules... for example, you could have a "helper" column (one that you hide on the sheet) that looks at the Date/Day and returns a number representing the day of the week.

This would be a standard WEEKDAY formula. See below:

Then, you can set up a Conditional Formatting rule to change the colour of the cell depending on what weekday it is. There are many different formatting options, you don't have to change the cell colour, so choose what works best for you!

At this point, I would suggest that you start bringing in your data into Smartsheet and creating your sheets. Then once you have the basics set up, post in Community again with screen captures and your specific questions to figure out how to set up the next element, based on what you currently have built.

There are so many different ways to automate and customize your sheets, including numerous formulas! We're happy to help, but you'll likely receive the best answers/responses when there are images and current sheets to work off of versus talking about all the different potentials.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Genevieve