Why do some columns (fields) not appear in a new form?

Mike Beam

Hi, I'm a new user. I created a Smartsheet with roughly 60 columns for a survey form, but not all of these appear when I create a form. Forty-eight (48) of these columns are Dropdown (Multi Select). Each column represents a month of the year for 4 different categories, so that is why there are so many. In other words, there are 4 categories of dropdown lists and 12 columns for each type of list (i.e., select-the-activities-for-January column, select-the-activities-for-February column, etc.). When I create a Form and Preview it, however, none of these columns appear. All the other columns/fields appear, but not the Dropdown (Multi Select) ones.

I would have thought Smartsheet's Form creator would allow me to customize how many fields appear per page for a form, but maybe not. Could that be a factor? Is there a limit to how many columns (fields) can be on a form?

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

Andrée Starå

@Mike Beam

It's strange!

I made a copy of the sheet and then it works!

If you haven’t already, I would recommend that you reach out to the Smartsheet Support Team.

Let me know what you find out!

Andrée Starå

Hi Mike,

What happens if you create a new form or did you create the form after all columns were 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!

Mike Beam

Thanks, Andree. I created the form after all the columns were added. I've tried that a few times and it doesn't seem to change anything.

Andrée Starå

Ok.

I'd be happy to take a quick look!

Can you maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s)? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

Alejandra

@Mike Beam It sounds like the dropdown list columns values are blank. Forms will only display dropdown lists with predefined values.

I hope this helps!

Andrée Starå

@Mike Beam

It's strange!

I made a copy of the sheet and then it works!

If you haven’t already, I would recommend that you reach out to the Smartsheet Support Team.

Let me know what you find out!

Genevieve P.

Hi Mike,

I've just tested by creating a sheet with 60 columns - some of them a drop-down single-select column type. They all appeared as options in my form when I go to create a new form.

Could you provide a screen capture of your sheet in Grid View (removing any sensitive data), as well as how the form appears for you?

Andrée Starå

@Genevieve P I helped Mike and the strange thing is that if we made a copy of the sheet it worked.

Genevieve P.

🤔🤔🤔very strange...

Well, glad you got it working!!

adamsker44426

I'm having the same problem, except creating a copy of the sheet isn't helping. I created a sheet with nine columns and only eight are appearing in the form I created. I tried manually creating a new field within the form and that didn't work either. They are all text/number columns. Any advice?

Andrée Starå

@adamsker44426

Hi Adam,

Strange!

Which column isn't getting included in the form? What happens if you create a couple of more columns in the sheet? Can't you see or add them to the form?

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

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!

Sophie Knudson

I too am having this issue, and the copying of the sheet doesn't help.

Any advice?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Sophie Knudson

Could you describe your issue in a bit more detail? Andrée has some good questions above:

Which column types are you missing? What happens if you create a couple of more columns in the sheet, or can you create more columns from the form itself? Can you post a screen capture of both the sheet in Grid view and the Form open in the builder? (But please block out any sensitive data).

Cheers,

Genevieve

PaulJ

I also have the same issue - has there been an resolution on this?

I am trying to update the logic of a form. The logic has several options, and most are showing up as selectable but one column won't show up no matter what I do. I've looked at the properties, and there's nothing unique about this value (Dropdown - single select from a drop down list)

Thanks

PaulJ

I just noticed that the column values are showing up, it's just that the column header is incorrectly associate with the name of a different column. This is an existing sheet that's about 6 months old, and I don't remember this issue when the form was set up. I just recently went it to do maintenance and noticed the missing/incorrectly labeled issue.

ElaBee

Columns that have a column formula will not show up in Forms. (Only cell formulas are allowed).