Can I make a template with sheets I already have?

Ariana Arden

I have been looking into saving my sheets as templates, and I think this would be a great option for our uses, but the problem is that all of my sheets for this year have been created. Each year I have 8+ large sheets with the same structure, and throughout the year we make some changes to formulas, add columns, etc. Right now, I have to go through each sheet individually and make these changes as they happen. My understanding of the template function is that if I made changes to the template, the sheets that are based on it would also reflect those changes.

So questions are I guess first off, is the above assumption correct? And if so, is there any way to make a template and assign the sheets that already exist to that template to streamline editing? Or do I have to wait until next year to implement this?

Thanks!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Ariana Arden

When you make a "Template" type of item from an existing sheet, the Template is essentially a Copy of that sheet from that exact moment in time.

Then when you generate Sheets from the Template, each of those sheets are Copies from that same moment in time. When you make updates to those copied sheets, this does not affect the original template or the original sheet that the template was made from.

Then if you make an update and want the new version to be a Template, you'd need to create a new Template type of item from the updated sheet (and delete the previous Template). New sheets created from this new template would have your updates, but none of the previously created items will be updated at all - once they've been created they are their own individual item. Does that make sense?

See: Templates: Create Your Own or Use One from the Solution Center

What you're describing sounds more like the Premium add-on Control Center. This enables you to generate project configurations of multiple sheets/reports etc, and then push out Global Updates when there's a change that needs to happen across all project plans.

Cheers,

Genevieve