why has new report builder lost the details that were included in fields.

Julie Morrison

The new report builder has made creating reports so much harder for us. The values of the cells are now missing and also the field names are not shown in full making it harder to pick the correct fields if similar names are use.

This is a step backward in terms of usability.

Madyson Morris

Hey everyone! I just posted about an enhancement to the builder based on community feedback.

Here is the post

Susan Peck

@Julie Morrison I have to agree with the step backward in usability. The old method was never intuitive, but the new approach is just inscrutable.

Is Smartsheet providing any training material on the new approach?

So far I haven't seen any negative affect on my reports, but now I'm scared to even open or touch them.

susan

Chris DeBonis

Completely agree, the new reporting functionality pales in comparison. It is clunky and unintuitive, and is definitely worse than what we had before.

Caroline England

@Julie Morrison I completely agree, this is not improving the usability of this function. Building a simple report is now taking so much additional time compared to the old method because of the points you have mentioned. Having to guess at which field I need to filter on based on the limited characters available is painful, and that is even before I have had to guess the correct text convention of the values I need to add to actually filter on.

Having to constantly cross-reference the source sheet is not conducive to a productive way of working so I am 100% in agreement with you, this is definitely not an improvement in terms of usability.

Andy H

I have to agree with all these comments, trying to explain to someone who is learning how to create reports that you have to second guess what the text within a drop-down actually says is not a great experience!

This update really isn't what was promised, very disappointing!

Madyson Morris

Hey everyone! I just posted about an enhancement to the builder based on community feedback.

Here is the post

Tommy Barba

Agree! And I have to concentrate and think to understand what I am actually sorting on when looking at a report already built.

In addition, the report feature is not much more inviting for people to do changes. Problem is that if you are licensed and you do a change, that change is applicable to anyone else using the same url/report.

In our case it is only 300 people.......I have asked for a new Permission type; Editor of data but not editor of layout or setup/report.

Andrée Starå

Hi Everyone,

Smartsheet released an update recently with some fixes.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/74070/a-few-more-updates-to-the-new-report-builder

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅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!