Datasources for Dropdown Menus
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Dan Cliff
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A sorely missing feature from Smartsheets right now is the ability to link dropdown menus to a central datasource - currently when designing sheets with dropdown menus, you need to manually update every sheet where the list exists making change management a pain.
If we could populate those dropdown menus from a reference sheet instead, this would go a long way to improving the user experience for change management.
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Comments
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I agree. Having the option to create a custom list that can be modified from a central location that automatically populates in any sheets that custom list is used would be a huge time saver.
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Yes as well as an easy way to see what entries have been overridden and contain a selection that is not in a drop down list. I get a message that says 18 cells have values that are not in drop down lists but I can not find a way to show me those 18 entries without exporting the dropdown list to a separate sheet, then creating a flag column to show which ones are not in the list. Now I have to maintain 2 lists. Smartsheet already knows there are 18 so it would be great if it could show me those 18.
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Totally agree with Cheree -- a filter option of "value not in dropdown list" would be a great way of handling it
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We love the idea of dynamic dropdowns. This seems to also be related to another idea here: https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/92421/dynamic-dropdowns. For those that are interested, we would love learn more about your specific scenarios and how this feature would work best for you. You can schedule time to connect with me at: https://go.oncehub.com/OlenRonning
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Yes, agree very much.
This could be achieved most simply by using a similar means as for defining 'external references' in formulas when pointing to a master/reference data sheet. Or for more specific row/record selection, it could allow us to use a COLLECT() function on that external reference.
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Drop down lists that feed into forms and other parts of sheets often change, ie. Contact Lists as Companies Change, Product lists, Optional Menus etc.. It would be extremely efficient to have one sheet that manages all drop down categories and as Sheets are built you select the Drop down category for that list (or continue to build manually). The dropdown streamline would make merging data across multiple sheets have stronger data integrity (no spelling errors etc..) and also be significantly easier to update once list vs. trying to find all places that common list applies too within your sheets.
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I agree that this would be a great feature added to the core product, but in the meantime there is an option to use Data Shuttle (if you have access to it). Basically you create an offload workflow from the master sheet and then create an upload workflow to change the dropdown values on the target sheet.
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That would be just fantastic! Maybe it's my biggest limitation these days. The problem is that I have a corporate account and it is not always feasible to purchase other packages. This functionality, if I may comment, is very basic for database structuring. So it should be part of a standard package.
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I would like to be able to populate a drop down list by referencing a cell range from another sheet.. For example I would like to have a list of project names in the intake sheet to be used as a dropdown values.
This way a can create form form that allows the use to select a project name, allowing it to be associated with other data entered in the form.
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This would dramatically improve the use of Smartsheets and seems like a no-brainer. Allow the creation of Workspace level named ranges, allow these named ranges to be used to populate drop down lists. Similarly, allow creation of Workspace level contact list, this then used to drive contact fields contents with filtering option.
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https://ddupdate.com/ is a great solution for this. You can setup a sheet in Smartsheet with the list of what you want on the dropdown e.g. current employees. This can then be linked across multiple sheets, if a new employee starts you can add it to the one sheet and this will then update all the linked dropdowns.
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Please keep in mind the ddupdate is not created by, endorsed, etc. by Smartsheet. It is a 3rd party app which means due diligence should be used before connecting to it especially if you have privacy concerns.
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See our Smarter Dropdown List Manager for Smartsheet which updates data values in a master dropdown list that then automatically updates matching dropdown lists in other nominated sheets
https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/apps/smarter-dropdown-list-manager-smartsheet
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The best way I found to update a drop down list was with Data Shuttle.
https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2482755-dynamic-dropdowns-data-shuttle
It is still a poor solution because you have to:
- Upload a file to have the drop down list change.
- Have a Data Loader for each drop down list you want to update. This means a Data Loader per sheet needing updates.
Having a dropdown list data that could be referenced by multiple sheets would be a huge help.
