Help Troubling issue. Rows randomly rearranging.

Paul E Rayburn

Has anyone noticed rows randomly rearranging?

I first noticed a few days ago, after dragging selected groups of rows and manually rearranging my sheet. (these groups are not parent child I just mean certain groups of rows I generally keep together and for some odd reason they appear to stay together but are still moved out of order in relation to other rows and "groups"). The next time I opened the sheet different groups were all in different locations. And I have also noticed randomly single rows appear to randomly be moved up the sheet several rows. This usually is rows from near or at the bottom moving up several rows.

I do have two shared users who would have had sheets open and making changes but they do not move rows around they only edit cells.

I also think it may have happened after moving multiple rows to other sheets.

Is this a common issue? I suspect it has to do with having multiple users with sheets open while manually making these changes.

Paul Newcome

If I have rows

1

2

3

and you are also working in the sheet then I rearrange the rows to

3

2

1

but you do not refresh your sheet and save your work after my row adjustment, it will go back to how it was when the last person that saved it had it. Also check your activity log to see if there has been any sorting done by the other users.

Paul Newcome

If I have rows

1

2

3

and you are also working in the sheet then I rearrange the rows to

3

2

1

but you do not refresh your sheet and save your work after my row adjustment, it will go back to how it was when the last person that saved it had it. Also check your activity log to see if there has been any sorting done by the other users.

Scott Maselli

This is a really bad situation. We have several sheets used by close to 900 resources. We need the data to remain in key sorted order. If one person accidentally changes the order it will affect the other 890+ resources. We need a way to maintain sort order. We only have 3 admins here.

The only way to fix this right now is to drop the sheet and rebuild. That's a big problem because it has a bunch of linkages which get lost when we do this.

PLEASE HELP SOLVE THIS PERSISTANT AND LONG STANDING ISSUE.

Paul Newcome

@Scott Maselli You can insert a hidden column and have the rows numbered so that you can resort the sheet based on the hidden column. I also suggest using reports if you have a lost of users accessing a sheet.

Scott Maselli

@Paul Newcome, thanks for the fast reply. Even with a hidden column, if I sort it by another field and accidentally hit save it will cause everyone to see the incorrect order...which is understandable. However, if I (as the admin) change the order to the correct hidden or unhidden key field, those users will retain the incorrect order if they happened to refresh after my incorrect ordering. I have no way of getting everyone out to reorder it back correctly.

Regarding using reports instead of sheets, these users need to be able to add rows. We cannot use reports at this point.

We need an admin function where I can force everyone to refresh their screen when required (even if it means they lose their unsaved data updates). I put in this request nearly 2 years ago. I was hoping someone would address this.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Scott Maselli

I hope you're well and safe!

Unfortunately, except for Paul's suggestions, it's not possible now, but it's an excellent idea!

Please submit this as a Product Feedback or Idea (If it hasn't been added already) when you have a moment.

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome

@Scott Maselli It is a challenge to overcome for sure. A little bit of training instructing users to hit that refresh button when it pops up may help. While not ideal it works.

As for reports and adding new rows... You can create a form to add the new rows and then drop the report and form onto a dashboard.

I definitely suggest using Andree's link to vote/add the idea now that their product enhancement request structure has been revamped.

Scott Maselli

@Paul Newcome in a small organization, training may likely work. I have nearly 900 users across the globe with new people joining every week. Training will not suffice here unfortunately.

The form and dashboard are possible, but I'm a bit restricted with development cycles right now. The easiest thing to do is adapt this feature. In my professional opinion, only the Admin should be able to change sort orders or hide/unhide columns. And when an Admin changes the order or modifies column visibility, it should be enforced on the user community. To support this notion, SS does not allow non-admins to change sort orders or hide/unhide columns. Why let them do it unbeknownst to them due to this less than ideal feature?

One other note, I am not alone at Broadridge on this issue. Several of us continuously are challenged here and would love for SS to help with a simple solution that does not require rework.

I will look for Andree's link, but would like to point out that I made this recommendation almost 2 years ago. Very disappointing to see it has not been resolved by now.

Andrée Starå

@Scott Maselli

You could also use a report and have the link in the report if that would simplify.

Another option would be the Premium App, Dynamic View, where the sorting would be intact, and you can also add new rows easily.

Would that be an option?

Scott Maselli

Thanks for the recommendation @Andrée Starå. While Dynamic View has it's merits, it would be overkill for what we are trying to do here. I need a simple solution which allows us, as admins, to definitively control the sheet. Either the non-admins should not be able to change an Admin's ordering/column visibility (and I see this as bug because they can't do it normally) or we, as admins, should have the right to force users to refresh their screens so that our desired layout gets disbursed to all users without any non-admin stepping over top of us.

Happy to speak with you and other SS leaders on this topic which you can see I'm very passionate about.

Thank you and best regards