Forms - Able to create a form to match data in a Sheet?

Kelly Huffman

Can I create a Form with data already in columns (First Name, Last Name, Company Name, etc) so the person just answers the questions and then the results are matched with their information in the Sheet?

Paul Newcome

It is possible by manipulating the URL, but in doing that, each variation of the form would require it's own link.

There may be other options, but it would depend on the details. Can you provide more information regarding how everything works, what data is captured, what data you want "pre-filled", and what exactly you mean by "results are matched with their information in the Sheet"?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Kelly Huffman

Could you maybe use the Update Request feature instead?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Paul Newcome

@Andrée Starå That's what I was thinking based on the "results are matched with their information in the Sheet" comment.

Kelly Huffman

@Paul Newcome Thank you for the reply! I am creating a Form and would like the form to have some fields already auto-populated like, provider office name / address / phone number, etc. These are fields that would come from an excel spreadsheet of providers. There would be other blank fields to capture responses to questions we will be asking. 

Is this something that Smartsheet can do? Partially populate fields form an excel worksheet and have prompt questions where the responses are completed? There would need to be dropdown fields for some of the questions.

Hope that helps clarify the ask! :)

Paul Newcome

Can you further explain "results are matched with their information in the Sheet"?

Kelly Huffman

@Paul Newcome Results are matched with info in the Sheet - explained: If we could have fields already populated in a row within a Sheet (e.g. Provider Office Name, Address, etc) and then be able to create a Form that would capture additional information for that same row, so then the data from the Form would match up with the correct row in the Sheet. So if I want to capture information from a Provider's Office (such as office hours, number of staff, phone number) in a Form, could I have the Provider Office Name and address already in the Sheet and then when the response from the Form comes in, it goes directly to that row associated with the Provider?

Does that better clarify?

Paul Newcome

Yes it does. Have you looked into the Update request Feature as @Andrée Starå suggested? It sounds like it will be a good fit for what you are wanting to achieve.

Kelly Huffman

@Paul Newcome I did see @Andrée Starå 's suggestion to use the Update Request feature. However, I'm not sure that's what we are looking to do. My understanding of Update Request is that I can build a workflow that will automatically notify a specific user to update information within a row. However, this seems like it will take a lot of manual data entry time. I was thinking a Form would be a quicker way to get the data in the Sheet. The issue is that I don't know how to sync Form data to existing rows within the Sheet. I read that a URL Query String may solve this?

Andrée Starå

@Kelly Huffman

The update request feature would work great because you can include already relevant information and decide what can be added or updated.

https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/update-requests

URL Query is a way to have values already in the form, but they are added through the URL, so each submitter needs to have a specific URL and add the submission as a new row.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2478871-url-query-string-form-default-values

I'd recommend testing out the Update Request feature to see if that would work, and if it doesn't, we can look into other workarounds.

Make sense?

What do you think?

Kelly Huffman

@Andrée Starå OK thank you, I will try it out! Thank you for sending the links.

Andrée Starå

@Kelly Huffman

You're more than welcome!

Let me know if you have any questions!