How to populate dropdown value list from another sheet

Robin Soprano

I have a list of employee information in one smartsheet. In another smartsheet, I'm recording events/things about employees. I'd like to have a dropdown list that have the list of employees names (from the other sheet) that I could use to select which employee this record pertains to.

Help?

Thanks!

Andrée Starå

Hi Robin,

Unfortunately, it's not possible at the moment, but it's an excellent idea!

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment to have your vote added

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post help answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Rob Palmer

This appears to have been on the roadmap for around five years. A lot of people have been asking for it and it's pretty essential what I need to do, even to the extent that it's a deciding factor for whether or not I convince my employer to fork out for a license for me.

Andrée Starå

@Rob Palmer

Hi Rob,

There are two possible workarounds.

You could use a VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH cross-sheet formula, but the list would need to be maintained manually in the dropdown list.

A solution that would be perfect for this use-case and that be used to keep the Dropdown list synced is the premium add-on, Data Uploader. Is that an option?

More info: 

https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/data-uploader

Would any of those options work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

k.mcnamara23941

I have put in several product enhancement requests, there is a myraid of requests for the same thing. Excel Ver 1908 could do this whjy cant we get this super basic but really important enhancement done. This is the one FRUSTRASTING thing about Smartsheet. I have to go into dropbox fields to update them for the user to select when it should be loaded from a column in some summary master daty sheet.................Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Mithun

I agree. This feels like a very basic and useful feature missing in smartsheet.

Marek Staniczek

Hi, I have been testing smartsheet. Until today I was very entusiastic and glad. But this option stop this and im a liitle bit confused that there is no option with this.

hughstearns

Every few months I do this search and it keeps coming up the same. It seems that at the least Smartsheet could explain why this is so difficult. I don't get the sense that they do not care or that they lack development. Far from it. So why does this repetitive question go unanswered?

Jamielepard

I am in full agreement - its very frustrating that this functionality is omitted. Although the need to cross sell is understood from Smartsheet's business development perspective (ie. Data Uploader) it isnt the right solution for the problem that so many in the community face.

Please revisit corporate strategy from constant breadth expansion (10k ft, Bridge, Gov, etc) and focus more on depth (like a basic Excel function). The basic application isnt as glamourous as new aquisitions, but I fear you will lose customer base.

I am an avid Smartsheet supporter/accolyte; even I find myself frustrated.

Jen Pyrzanowski

I second...."I have to go into dropbox fields to update them for the user to select when it should be loaded from a column in some summary master daty sheet.................Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" Really Smartsheet??? Basic best practice would be to pull from master sheet rather than recreate the list.

MikeChambers

I'd like to throw my vote in for this feature as well. I work at a university where the names of colleges and departments within those colleges are frequently updated. I need a dropdown list on forms that allow users to select their department from a dropdown list that is regularly updated. Is there a way to influence Smartsheet to consider adding this functionality? I have upvoted the ideas in this thread, and I'm looking for additional ways to add my voice to the growing number of users who are requesting this feature.

Hugebean

Yeah...I'd really like to hear from SS about this. And please don't tell us "wow what a good idea...please submit an enhancement request" ... it's been requested many times over many years.

Think about how much more useful SS would be if you could populate dropdown lists from another sheet...something we take for granted in Excel. I'm tired of doing gymnastics to get around this or just flat-out abandoning good SS implementation ideas and using Excel or some other tech solution because SS can't do this.

Why won't you (Smartsheet) address this? I've worked in software development and I know users like to rant and rave, wave their arms, and express utter disbelief that such a SIMPLE and OBVIOUS feature has been omitted. Often it is not simple due to existing software architecture structure. If that's the case, fine, but at least give us an explanation (so we know not to expect it). After several years and nothing but crickets from Smartsheet on this, there's not much to say other than WTF???

Please, SS...give us some shred of information on the status of this capability.

jim.wilson94326

My organization became a customer a little over a year ago. This feature was our #1 concern prior to signing the contract and paying a ton of money (for a small non-profit). We were told by our sales rep that he had never heard of such a request and wasn't quite sure what I was talking about. In a screen-share session, I demonstrated the feature as it works in AirTable. After he "checked with the engineers", he assured us that the feature would be coming soon and to watch for an announcement. We eagerly scanned announcements coming out of ENGAGE 2019. Nothing. I have not seen anything out today's ENGAGE 2020 sessions I watched. I'm with @Hugebean: I get that seemingly simple can actually be complex. What I don't get is silence on the matter. I'm tired of copying and pasting country codes, currency codes, etc. from dropdown list to dropdown list.

Erik Jensen

Count me in on this as well. This piece of functionality I could hack my way around to a solution in the past. My company is growing in size and my hack (which is just manually going from sheet to sheet updating the same drop down column), is now making it very easy to make mistakes.

Smartsheet, I am your biggest salesperson here in Vancouver. I tell all of my customers and trades how much I love you. The lack of this functionality has made me start looking for alternatives.

It really doesn't seem like a big ask. What's the holdup?

Alex T.

Going to chime in here, crazy that this isn't available yet. Was told 3 years ago "soon". When will "soon" be now?

Byron Hu

Agree! Why isn't there a community manager monitoring this thread and providing some explanation? Without explanations, the only reason I can think of is so that they can charge extra for their premium apps for a function that should be super basic.