Can Smartsheet fill an email template?

Lindsay Kay

I have an email template that I fill manually with cell data before sending to a client for billing. Is there a way that Smartsheet can automatically fill the appropriate information into the email template?

Kevin M

Hello Lindsay,

Yes this is possible. You would have to set up an email notification automation. Within the message section, you would like to click Message Only option, so the person who is receiving the email, won't get the URL to the sheet.

Use {{Column Name}} in the subject and body. This will automatically populate the email with the information within the Cell.

Kevin

Brett Wyrick

There is - could you post an example of your email template?

Couple of clarifying questions, could you answer these?

1. Is all of the data on one row, or is it on several rows?
2. Is this something you send on a regular basis (recurring) or is it sort of an "ad hoc" thing?

If all of your data isn't on one row, this gets more difficult, but not impossible. For that I'd recommend a report and set that up for a recurring email.

If it is on one row, then this is fairly easy. Here's what I'd recommend to do:

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All-on-one-Row solution to create an email template:

1. Create a new column named "Email Template" or something you'll remember. Make it a Checkbox type column.
2. Go to the Automation tab at the top of your sheet, then select "Alert Someone"
3. Set the "Trigger" to be "When rows are changed"
   1. Parameter: When "Email Template" changes to Checked ✅
   2. Parameter: Run Workflow: when Triggered
4. Scroll down to the "Alert someone" box, choose who you want to send this message to (might be yourself, for ease of use)
5. Press "Customize message". Select "Message body only" for the radio buttons toward the bottom.
6. For each column you want in the template, you can simply use squiggly brackets around the column name. For example, if you have a column named "Status", you can simply put "{{Status}}".
   1. Example:
      1. Project status: {{Status}}. Completion Percentage: {{% Complete}}. Tasks remaining: {{Rem. Tasks}}.
   2. Here's a link from Smartsheet that goes over this: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479256-customize-the-content-of-your-alerts-and-requests#toc-customizing-a-message-in-a-workflow

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Let me know what you think, if this will work for you or not!

Brett Wyrick

Howdy, following up - would my solution above work for you?

John Crick

This sounds like a great solution! Thank you.

How can we set up the email to send to a distribution list of 300 - 500 individuals? We have a master contact Spreadsheet, not all of which would receive this email. Is it possible to set a column in this contact Smartsheet to be the trigger for inclusion in the distribution for a particular email workflow? E.g., create a column labeled "Email - Project A". Any contact in which the Email - Project A column is checked would be included in the distribution list for that email workflow. This would allow us to set up distribution lists for separate projects within the same contact Smartsheet.

John