sort save and undo

Cadsolutions - Paul Johnson

Can I raise a serious flaw in Smartsheet. Saving after sorting can not be undone. This is a big issue for large sheets containing data. I have a client who inadvertantly saved after sorting and now had to spend 2-3 days redoing all the inputtng for the sheet in the format they wanted.

The workaround we had AFTER we fixed the sheet was to put a new column called reference and out a number in for every row entry. so that if a sort is saved we can re-sort using the reference column. IT doesnt solve the issue with sheets that have not got this reference column though. My client is not at all impressed!!!!

Can SS perhaps have a column numbering system that ties the entry to a row id so that all entries can be sorted by row id.

Michelle Watkins

Hello,

 

Were you able to add a new column and set the column to Auto-System/Number then and choosing the Auto-Number option will would facilitate the RowID feature of autonumbering?  Does this help?

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/1108408-auto-numbering-rows

 

Another option if needed is to add the created by / modified dates and use this as a sorting function.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/1964567-system-columns

 

I too have experienced where my customers were editors in my sheet which allows them the ability to sort the sheet as you experienced.  One thing that helped me was locking the parent rows to help keep that structure in tact.

 

One more thought - Smartsheet has a fairly new feature for filters that individuals can either just set up for themselves or can click to share so others can use the same filter.  I've started creating filters on my projects and teach my customers and teams how to leverage these v. Sorting the sheet.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/504659-using-filters-to-show-or-hide-sheet-data

 

Hope these ideas I've implemented for my projects help!

 

 

Tim Meeks

I think Excel used to have the same issue as I've sorted sheets before and realized I lost my original sort and didn't have a reference key to get it back.

 

However, MS Office 2013 Excel version keeps the Undo history available for selection. Maybe this can be added to SS.  

 

However, even in Excel, if you close the sheet and reopen, you lose the Undo History. So you need an index in your sheet to sort by.  

 

Having an inhert index key built in would help in a situation such as yours.. 

 

tim