Can Smartsheet lock a column AFTER data is input, for referencing in Update Requests?

Peter Hill

Hi,

I have a Smartsheet workflow I would like to implement and can't seem to figure out if it's possible.

I have a sheet with four columns: Name, Date (formula set to the following Monday after the CreatedBy date), Commitment Detail (a work task they are promising to get done), and a Commitment Completed (yes/no dropdown) column.

The user would open the Form for the sheet, where they can only see fields for their Name and the Commitment Detail. They select their name and enter a sentence about what work task they promise to get done this week and hit Submit. Then, the Date field populates the following Monday, based on the CreatedBy date on that particular row. I would then like to have an automation send an Update Request for the row to the submitter on the Date (Monday of the following week), where the Update Request shows their Name, Commitment Detail (the text they entered the previous week), and Commitment Completed (Y/N) fields, but where they can ONLY edit the Yes/No dropdown to indicate whether or not the completed the commitment they made to the team. It defeats the purpose if the person can change their "commitment" the day it's due. I can't lock that column though, because then no-one would be able to fill out the form initially. I would like to allow them to fill out the row and have an automation that says "Once data has been added...lock the Commitment Detail column."

Can this be done in a simple way or am I SOL? Thanks for any advice!

Kelly Moore

Hey @Peter Hill

The community may offer other work-arounds. One possibility is to copy the column you want locked using =[original column]@row to a helper column. Keep the helper column locked and use that helper column in the Update request. This is a quick solution if it's not adding a bunch of columns to your sheet.

cheers,

Kelly Moore

Hey @Peter Hill

The community may offer other work-arounds. One possibility is to copy the column you want locked using =[original column]@row to a helper column. Keep the helper column locked and use that helper column in the Update request. This is a quick solution if it's not adding a bunch of columns to your sheet.

cheers,

Peter Hill

KDM,

Thank you! I don't know why I didn't think of that, but you're completely right and I think that will work for my purposes! Thank you so much for the quick reply!