Stop the additional columns when moving

Sinema

Greetings,

We are living a nightmare with Smartsheet.

It's a short question.

Is there a way to move a line from one sheet to another without having every column pulled from that sheet.

We have orders that move through different stages and we notice on the last sheet we have 100 columns that, duplicate columns, columns that cause workflows to break because they were lines that were moved to that sheet and broke them.

Sinema

I had figured these were the answers.

I'm looking at Zapier to see if there is a way to delete the unwanted columns. We have these sheets pass through some folks who add columns for their specific job but have not meaning to other areas as the process flows into their area so we end up with one sheet with hundreds of columns of empty data.

David Joyeuse

@Sinema

Nope, there is no way to block the unnecessary columns.

Though moving or copying rows shouldn't create duplicates. If columns are named exactly the same between the two sheets it will not add another column and will copy the value from the first sheet in the second sheet. Which might break a formula in this case.

Same thing, added columns shouldn't break workflows, because they weren't part of any formula or workflow when you created them.

Try to keep some consistency within your different sheets regarding columns' name and everything should be fine.

Hope it helped!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Sinema

To add to David’s excellent answer.

Another option could be to use cross-sheet formulas and VLOOKUP or a combination of INDEX/MATCH instead.

Also, I think Smartsheet is working on a feature to select which columns should move/copy over.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Sinema

I had figured these were the answers.

I'm looking at Zapier to see if there is a way to delete the unwanted columns. We have these sheets pass through some folks who add columns for their specific job but have not meaning to other areas as the process flows into their area so we end up with one sheet with hundreds of columns of empty data.

Andrée Starå

@Sinema

Unfortunately, it's not possible with Zapier. Smartsheet API is probably the best solution to be able to remove the columns.

✅Remember! Did my post(s) 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!