Summary

MilesTHD

Who is familiar enough with Summary feature in sheets, do I need it if I reports built off the same sheet?

is there an advantage of one over the other?

Thanks in advance

Miles

AnthroTim

Hi MilesTHD,

For me, Summary - is useful if you want to keep things conceptually separate. So, on your sheet you may have calculations and metrics - but you may want to do some other calculations or store other data that doesn't make sense to be on the sheet itself. For example, you might have a Project Description or a project status flag. Those things are 'about' the thing rather than part of the thing itself (if that makes sense).

Obviously, there's more than one way to do summary data.

1. You could use the Summary section.
2. You could have a summary row and have summary items as children of that row at the top of the sheet
3. You could have a metrics or Project Summary sheet, separate from the main sheet where you store that data and link it in.

2 and 3 are particularly relevant if you use something like 'Control Centre'.

So in short, it depends n what you are trying to achieve and the context of what you are trying to do. But a general rule is that if what you are doing works for you and your team, then it's fine. But if the sheet is getting messy and is a mix of data and summary data and is getting hard to use - then summary (in one of its forms will be useful).

I use summary a lot as I like to keep my concepts separate and keep the sheet as simple as possible. You can reference summary data in your sheet as well.

There's much more info on Summary here: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/level-2-intermediate-users/sheet-summary

Which may help.

Tim

anthrotechnic.com