Creating assessment questions in forms and running into the column description length issue

Miki Jeffers

Hello, I would like to create a form with a series of questions. I'm running into the issue where the length of the question is greater than 250 characters for the column heading. Has anyone figured out a workaround?

Miki

Andrée Starå

@MJeffers

Yes, it can be limiting, but I usually come up with a shorter column name or use a so-called helper row to show the complete name.

Would that help?

Andrée Starå

Hi @MJeffers

I hope you're well and safe!

Is it a form or an update request?

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@workbold.com)

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Miki Jeffers

Hello @Andrée Starå

It is a form. Unfortunately, I can't share even de-identified smartsheet due to our internal security protocols.

This is the use case.

Question 1: Does your practice location have a SOP for after hours call routing that is documented and readily available to practice staff?

If I take this question and make it my column heading description, it chops the text off due to character limitations. So the full question won't show up on the form.

I can't cut these questions down without losing some of the meaning.

Andrée Starå

@MJeffers

If it's a form, you can change the label to something else (what is shown in the form).

The column heading can be, Question 1 or something short.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2481826-edit-or-remove-fields-in-a-form

Make sense?

Would that work?

Miki Jeffers

I understand what you're saying but it doesn't solve the issue of long questions. Looking in the community forums it seems this is a gap.

Andrée Starå

@MJeffers

How long can your questions be?

I think I've tried with 400 characters, and it worked.

Miki Jeffers

In the label yes....I think that is an interesting option and I've got more room on the form. I run into trouble when I want to report out on my findings in a dashboard. So having a 50 character limit in the smartsheet grid is the issue.

Andrée Starå

@MJeffers

Yes, it can be limiting, but I usually come up with a shorter column name or use a so-called helper row to show the complete name.

Would that help?

EnriqueGP17

It's very limiting!

I just don't understand why this was decided. I'm trying to create a form and the questions don't fit. I would need to use the description field to fit the whole question which of course is not user-friendly or appealing to the eye.

Is there a good reason for having character limits?

I hope this is something that will be changed in future versions, I never had this issue with Google Forms and that's a free product.