Attachments (Renaming, Sorting and Download features)

Jessica Chandler

I have already submitted an enhancement request because I'm fairly certain these features don't exist but am asking the community in case there is a work around that someone has devised that could help me in the meantime.

I have a sheet with several hundred rows.

Each row is associated with a person.

Each row has an attachment that is is associated with that person.

I want to download all attachments in the sheet but I need the attachments to be sorted alphabetically.

THE PROBLEM : The names of the attachments are all the same. When I download them in bulk the only options for sorting the downloads are by "Date" "Name" "Size" or "User". None of these indicators help me determine which person the file belongs to.

"NAME" - There does not appear to be an easy way to change the attachment name for each row. It seems that I actually have to download each attachment, rename it and then upload it again. There is an option to "Edit the description" but that does nothing to help me with sorting. That seems to be more for version control.

"USER" or "DATE" - I tried adding a system column for "user" or "date" to see if I could modify it somehow but that didn't work since the system column is related to the row and the sorting ability for attachments is related to the actual attachment.

"SIZE" - I didn't even bother with this because the documents are all roughly the same size.

Has anyone discovered a faster way of getting attachments out of smartsheet that can be sorted in a particular order?

Mark Mader

Hi Jessica -

Just a quick note to let you know that attachment rename has now been added to the app. Hover over the ellipsis of an uploaded attachment and select 'Rename'.

With respect to a rapid way to download all attachments for a sheet, go to Home, select your sheet and choose 'Request Backup' from the menu.

Very much appreciate the well written post.

Cheers,

Mark

RENAME:

REQUEST BACKUP OF SHEET (W/ Attachments)

Mark Mader

Hi Jessica -

Just a quick note to let you know that attachment rename has now been added to the app. Hover over the ellipsis of an uploaded attachment and select 'Rename'.

With respect to a rapid way to download all attachments for a sheet, go to Home, select your sheet and choose 'Request Backup' from the menu.

Very much appreciate the well written post.

Cheers,

Mark

RENAME:

REQUEST BACKUP OF SHEET (W/ Attachments)

Jessica Chandler

Thanks for adding the Rename feature! I love how Smartsheets really does make changes based on customer feedback. I've submitted 3-4 ideas over the years and you guys always come through.

scott.parr83911

Apparently this is only possible while in the parent sheet, not while in a report - is there a reason for this omission? Is it likely to be remedied?

Phillip Jones

I have a similar issue as the OP. I have about 1K rows of briefing acknowledgements with a pdf attachment for each. I need to download and send the attachments to different respective clients, so the filename itself will need to contain the employee name and ID, which are both fields in my Sheet.

With the current functionality, I'll have to manually rename every attachment, which is time consuming and prone to error.

I'd like to see a feature associated with the template/document create/edit functionality, which would allow me to optionally designate one or more fields from my sheet to use as the filename for the document attachment... Employee_Name + ' ' + Employee_ID + '.pdf' or something like that.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Phillip Jones

I hope you're well and safe!

You can now structure a file name with the Document Builder/DocuSign feature.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Jessica Chandler

@Andrée Starå Unfortunately, the DocuSign features are only available if you have an enterprise account.

Andrée Starå

@Jessica Chandler

Thanks for your patience!

Would a 3rd party option work?

Hammermill21

@Andrée Starå

Just found this thread, what other 3rd party option would work to rename files/attachments?

I have Zapier but haven't been able to get that to work.

Thanks!

Thirukumaran

@Andrée Starå Yes, It works awesome with auto-generation of the document with a cell name defined.👌

Andrée Starå

@Thirukumaran

Yes, it's fantastic. I've waited for it to be officially released so I can talk about it.

ForgeAhead

@Andrée Starå I am a little confused about this post. What is the third party app that can perform this? Thanks.