ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE - DEFAULTS FOR FIELDS

ccianci

This is a MAJOR fail - that while you can set a field to a default value in the form, you can't do it in the sheet itself - !!!!!  this is a FAIL!

 

This should be addressed as soon as possible by your team.

Mike Wilday

You might be able to with a formula. If you're bottom row has a field that contains a formula in it, any new rows will have that same formula...

 

 

Some things to note:

1) This fails if you sort your sheet and your formula is not in the bottom-most row. 

2) Smartsheet adds 10 blank rows for some reason... once you set your bottom-most row with the formula you should delete all remaining rows to ensure new rows that are created contain that formula. 

 

Hope that helps. 

Russell Willis

Mike,

 

I have found that Smartsheet ALWAYS adds the 10 rows to the bottom, so regardless if you have deleted them prior to save, when reopening the file a new 10 rows without any formula are there at the bottom!...

Even with the formula in my bottom most rows, I do not find that formula are contained within new rows.

I am looking for a way to do exactly this, as the administrative duty to continuoosly check for new rows, missing formulas, is quite a burden we could do without!

is there any other effective way to ensure that fixed formula cells are retained in new rows added?

Mike Wilday

Once you delete the rows, and the new ones are added, try adding content to one of the new rows. The formulas should appear in the new row. They don't appear until content is added to them, and they become part of the sheet. They're kind of like ghost rows until content is added. Not sure the reasoning behind them, but give it a shot. 

ccianci

Thank you for your responses but with all due respect, this is not a fix but a workaround that only sort of addresses the problem.  This seems like a complete no brainer to me!  Why would you ever say your database product was complete without this???

Mike Wilday

Hi ccianci, 

Thanks for your feedback,

First of all, this is a user community; this is not my product, I am a product user. 

Second, Yes, I was providing a workaround in the absence of a key feature. 

Third, I don't see terminology on https://www.smartsheet.com/ that indicates this is a database product. -- even though in essence it does have some of that functionality.

J. Craig Williams

A formula will not work as a default value because as soon as the default is overridden, the formula will be gone. This will likely affect new rows and the Auto-Fill functionality.

 

There are ways to accomplish this using formulas using a manual entry column, however.

 

What exactly are you trying to accomplish, that is, what is the work-flow?

 

Craig

ccianci

My apologies-i thought this community was run or participated in by smartsheet staff.  I will endeavor to bring my complaint/request for changes to them more directly.

Mike Wilday

No worries. Employees do monitor and respond to posts on the forum, but primarily this is a user community. If you add to your sheets using a web form, rather than direct entry, you can implement default values via the form. The following link refers to web forms as well as specifies that default values can be set via the forms. 

 

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/522221-using-web-forms#editwebform