Rich Text formatting in cells

Phil Toler

Having Rich Text formatting would be a great addition. The ability to bold, italicize, color, underlining, etc., would solve numerous communication issues.

WasteKnot

Totally agree this is needed.

Tim Starkey

Glad to see this is on the roadmap. Since you asked, some specific examples and use cases for our firm:

Obviously - highlighting specific text within a cell by BOLD, COLOR, italics, strikethrough, etc...

Adding a hyperlink in a cell, and not having to set the entire cell as a hyperlink. And having more than one hyperlink in a cell.

The ability to do all of that via formulas... either by setting the format IN the formula, or by passing the formatting of the referenced cell(s) so that when concatenated, the text takes on all the individual formats. And vice versa, the ability to override the formatting coming from the referenced cell.

And speaking of formulas...

• The ability
• to add bullets
• and carriage
• returns
• in a formula

Use case example 1 - intake tickets - since current form limitations require a separate column for each form field dropdown, my intake form has about ~20 'helper' columns. The selections are concatenated back into a 'summary' column. That summary has no contextual hierarchy. I use ">" between parts so it looks like this (except without the "." because this field thinks I am quoting)

Issue .> Autocad .> Cannot open file .> Tried Self Help: Yes .> [filepath]

or

Request .> Filesharing folder .> [Project Name] .> [Expiration Date] .> [Owner] .> [Users]

When it would look like

• Request: Fileshare
• Project: [Name]
• Expiration: [date]
• Owner: [name]
• Users: [names]

Use case example 2: We have a status update report that collects information from various sheets and summarizes for our clients. The ability to pass it through into something easier to read would be a great help.

So instead of

Key milestones this week: [text string], [text string], [text string], [text string]

I could get

Key Milestones this week:

• text string
• text string with key info highlighted
• text string

I am sure some of this is possible if I set up helper columns, helper sheets, cross sheet references, vlookup formulas and indexing all tied to a dashboards with cross linking derivative equations...

or I could just use rich text in the cell 😁

In summary, I would be very happy to be able to do everything I can do in this community post for formatting... and wouldn't even ask for the embedded image part. Maybe next year for that...

Digikiwam

Spin off (maybe Phase 2 of Rich Text) the ability to use Rich Text Format within a cell, as part of a formula. So if you have text underlined in a cell, you can use a formula to find cells with underlined text?

Galexa0711

I agree with Heather and Amy's posts, and have a couple more suggestions below.

Heather's suggestions:

• change the font color inside a cell: being able to select text inside a cell (or part of a cell) and change the font color, will make that text section stand out. 👍
• change the font type (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough) inside a cell: the font type can enhance a project by drawing attention to key words within a text/cell.👍
• change the font size inside a cell: the font size can help differentiate between titles, headers, and body text inside a cell. 👍
• highlight text within a cell, and hyperlink specific text/font inside a cell 👍

Amy's suggestions:

• tiered bullet points within a cell (different bullet style for different levels of text indent). Use case: We use bullets all the time in "executive summary"/comments cells that roll up to a leadership dashboard. They break up the text and make it easier to read at a glance. Tiered bullets would be especially good for documentation housed in a Smartsheet, something I am working towards to keep our project toolkit centralized. 👍

• numbering within a cell (creating numbered lists of text). Use case: Logging several steps that must be completed to resolve a risk on a risk log, and other numerous similar cases. 👍

My suggestions:

Bolding and Alignment of Titles - this is a great way to highlight the titles of the column and having the alignment either match the column or just be centered would be cleaner to view.

Borders around cells - this will allow separation between columns and rows to distinguish the data especially when reporting or adding to dashboard. gridlines are helpful but when separating information an actual border is better.

Adding Images within cell - our organization is very focused on accessibility for people viewing report and a great way to do that is with different types of symbols or pictures

Merging cells - this is very helpful and shows better in a report or dashboard instead of duplicating the same data multiple times. i.e. one category with multiple sub-categories - see example below of duplicating data

Allowing the formatting to carryover to reports and dashboards - This is where you will want the formatting to show and make visuals pop.

Thanks!!

emilydc

This is such a useful feature in Excel I would LOVE to see it implemented in Smartsheet. Rich formatting is helpful everywhere and I wish it was always available.

SimplyElegant

Well, after reading all of these comments requesting Rich Text Formatting, it is obvious to me that it is not a high priority of the company, or they do not know how to get it done.

Rich Text formatting within a text box on forms is necessary.

Andra T

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/93335/rich-text-formatting-in-cells

I definitely agree! There currently isn't a way to change the format of just a part of the data from the cell in Smartsheet. By design all the format changes are apply to the entire cell. I would like the ability to call out only certain parts of my data within a cell without having to bold or highlight everything. This would really improve documentation and make using SmartSheets much more intuitive to senior management and stakeholders.

DesireeD

Has there been any progress on this? It would be useful to use rich text within a cell to emphasize specific section of text or create hierarchy using color, bold, italics, bullets. Ideally the rich text in a sheet would also show in the cards or calendar view when clicking on the details of an entry, and would transfer over to the reports and dashboard. This will be helpful when wanting to draw the attention of senior management to specific details.

EliHam

Bump

Alexandra Bancroft

Bump!

This would greatly increase the readability of data in our cells. Working on converting a contact sheet for our organization that has been housed in excel. Each department is a row I have columns that hold information for the department lead, department admin, etc. Some departments have more than one lead or admin and I store their titles or other info in italics as well as tasks/other relevant data using color coded text. Might make my sheet in box for now instead of smartsheet until this feature is released.

David Brandt

Definitely would value rich text capability in a cell. Would be useful to be able to share this into dashboards and calendar apps with flexible formatting.

Seatora

Smartsheet is amazing for breaking down lengthy contracts into smaller parts for review/comment/historical reference/etc. The use of strike-through, hi-lighting, italics, bold, bullets etc. are preserved and can be added. It is helpful to be able to call out specific information to stakeholders.

Ole

Agree with this request as it will greatly enhance the value of Smartsheet when using in commercial applications where the output look and feel as well as readability is of the essence.

Formatting in the cells would not only improve the on screen display of cells but also greatly enhance the output in the Document Builder and Reports thereby supporting professional formatting of the whole document and increase the Smartsheet market for commercial professional documents such as:

• contracts
• project descriptions
• change requests,
• marketing campaigns
• many other applicationswhere you today can only use the “flat” style of Smartsheet cells.

Hence, formatting of cells would be a substantial selling point in all markets where professional looking documents are a must.

P.S. This comment in itself is a good example why formatting of cells in Smartsheet is needed 😁👍

Headings, images and tables would also be very useful:

Headings like this

Images like this:

Inline links like this:

http://smartsheet.com

rshean

I love all the ideas above. It would be super helpful to be able to format only part of the text in a cell instead of the whole cell. We have a spreadsheet that looks like this that we use to keep track of larger projects and all the steps needed to complete the project. It'd be super helpful if we could strike through parts of the cell instead of the whole cell. Here's what it looks like in excel. I'd love to be able to do this in smartsheet too! :D