Subtasks in card view inheriting same qualifications as parent task

Susana Hak

I know this question has been asked in some various forms, but I haven't been able to quite combine it to my specific situation. My team likes to use the card view and I have it conditionally formatted so that within a column, if a task has been added to one of the various drop down options (each has its own lane), the task will keep the color of that study. When I add a task directly to a lane and add the subtask, the subtasks do not keep the lane header and color conditioning of that lane (hence how I know it's not the same in card view). I used the parent() formula and it wouldn't autofill the formula for the subtasks.

In my smartsheets, the column is called "Study", and I have 5 different drop down options which corresponds to each of its lanes in card view when I do "View by Study", if I am adding a task to the "BC Squad General" lane, the card is conditioned to be green. Then when I add the subtasks, they are blue instead.

When I check in grid view, the cell is blank in the "Study" color which is why it reverted to the normal color formatting.

I tried the =parent() formula but I have to manually do it for every new hierarchy. I also have tried making this a column formula, but then I lose the ability to choose from a dropdown options and I can't move the cards into the appropriate study lanes (it gets stuck).

Another idea I was thinking was then doing a column formula of some sort =IF(ISBLANK[Study]@row),parent()) so that if a cell in the "Study" column is blank, then it will do the =Parent() formula automatically but then I couldn't get it to work so that if the cell is not blank, then to leave it alone. I was also thinking along the lines of adding a formula to detect if a task is either a parent or a child, then to do the =parent() formula in the "Study" column automatically if it's not a parent. But I also haven't been able to make that work. Any way I can automate this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Susana Hak

You won't be able to apply a formula and manually change the values in the parent rows as well (as you've found!)

Instead, I'd suggest setting up a "helper column" that you base your Conditional Formatting rules off of. This helper column would have a Column Formula to auto-populate every cell based off of your Study column.

In my sheet, I use this formula:

=IF(Study@row = "", PARENT(Study@row), Study@row)

This will then have a column in your sheet which applies a specific Study to each row, automatically, and you can set up your Formatting Rules on the Helper column (note, you can hide this column in your sheet after you've set this up):

This means that you can use the "Study" column as the drop-down list for your Card Lanes, and then the formula will change the colour of the subtasks based on your Helper Column:

Does this make sense? Let me know if this will work for you!

Cheers,

Genevieve