Prepopulate information in forms

Hello everyone,

I am trying to create a Smartsheet form that would automatically populate information when a user fills in a form and leaves certain columns blank. When a user leaves certain columns blank, it indicates that nothing has changed for that specific project so far. For example, if there are 10 unique projects, and a user needs to update the information for project 5 in the month of July. The information placed in the Smartsheet for June is the same for July, so the user would leave all of the columns blank.

I want the previous information (June) to automatically be placed in the new row (July) since there were no changes. I have gone about this in many ways (IF/ISBLANK statements, automations, update requests), but none of them seem to give me the answer I am looking for. I think a formula is probably the best way to go about this, but if anyone has had a similar issue or an answer please let me know. Thank you!

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Accepted answers

Leibel S

@Adam1234

Try combining update requests with copy row automation, this would keep your historical data.

All comments

Paul Newcome

Have you looked into sending update requests instead of forms?

Adam1234

Hi Paul,

Yes, I did try update requests. The only problem with it is that it does not add new rows when new information is added (which is what I wanted). I want users to be able to see the previous data in June, and also see the new prepopulated data in July. Please let me know if you may have an idea. Thank you!

Leibel S

@Adam1234

Try combining update requests with copy row automation, this would keep your historical data.

Adam1234

Hi @Leibel Shuchat,

I did not try that, but I did come up with a Vlookup system that works quite well. I use Vlookup on a separate smartsheet that is linked to the main one and that allows me to prefill or change any info in filling out a form. Thanks for reaching out!

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