Community Drafts - manual or automatic save? (Poll Closed)

Hi Community,

We've recently received feedback around the draft feature when posting a comment and are always looking for ways to improve the on-platform experience for our community members. Your feedback is important!

Currently, the site will continuously auto-save as you type so that you have a record of your content without needing to think about it, to prevent you from losing your work.

We have the ability to adjust this feature so drafts are only created if you manually select the "Save Draft" button.

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What would you prefer?

Please share your preference and expand on your choice in the comments below.

Thanks!

Genevieve

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Comments

Paul Newcome

Having the option to switch it based on personal preference would definitely be ideal.

Jeff Reisman

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/342618#Comment_342618

I agree with Paul. Make it a personal setting, but default to automatic save.

I personally like the automatic save, since I'm often working on answers during brief lulls in my day, or in particularly boring meetings, and may have to step away or close browser screens. Having a draft saved without thinking about is ideal for me.

Cleversheet

Surprised anybody dislikes it. Would be interested to learn what about it some regard as less than ideal.

Paul Newcome

@Cleversheet Its a personal preference for me for a couple of reasons that are honestly relatively minor (but if someone asks I'll give my opinion hahaha).

I can't tell you how many times I have gone to click on the "Post Comment" button just as the auto-save has kicked in. If I am not paying attention I have clicked the button and closed the tab to move on to the next task at hand and not realized it never posted. It isn't often, but when I do catch it I still have to sit and wait. It also seems to be random times, so it is hard to say that just because it auto-saved 2 seconds ago I should be alright. It becomes quite an annoyance when I try to post my comment but get blocked by the auto-save 3 or 4 times in a row.

It also doesn't delete the draft once the comment has been posted. This gets me twice. Once when I open the thread to post another comment. I have to delete the text that was saved before typing out my next response. And again with my OCD when I see a number there next to "My Drafts". I do save some drafts to come back to later, so now I have a bunch of mess to dig through to keep the ones I want and have to individually delete the ones I don't want.

So really nothing more than a matter of inconvenience for me, but I definitely would prefer manual.

Paul Newcome

@Kelly Moore It looks like (so far) we are the only two to vote for manual. What is your reasoning behind it?

Kelly Moore

Hey @Paul Newcome

My reasons are many of the same reasons you posted. I turn auto-save off in every program that allows me to do so so I'm used to saving when I am ready to save. In the community, often I'll start to answer a post (since we can't see someone else is working on it) then before I respond I see someone else has already responded. I delete (in my current view) what I was about to post only to see later that the draft saved. So exactly like you, it is a matter of convenience.

Paul Newcome

@Kelly Moore I too turn off the auto-save in every program including Smartsheet.

Porzel Hans

I prefer to decide myself when Smartsheet should safe something where I just "played" through some scenarios.

Cleversheet

@Porzel Hans, when working in Smartsheet you already have the ability to elect whether to activate Auto-Save in your personal preferences, along with a selection of time frames. And I agree: there are times when automatic saving of changes can interfere with things, like prematurely saving a formula you’re building. I’m glad I can switch it off when I’m in dev mode, for instance (though I often forget to do so).

The discussion here is whether what we write as we’re submitting or responding to Community messages, and strictly in this environment rather than in Smartsheet, should be auto-saved. I would regard that scenario as less sensitive to the concern you’ve raised.

Porzel Hans

Hello,

I see! Sorry when I confused this. Thanks for your clarification!

Best regards

Hans P. ... from Germany

Genevieve P.

Hi all,

The Community has spoken! We will be keeping the Auto-Save Draft feature enabled and leave the current functionality as-is.

@Paul Newcome, @Kelly Moore and @Jeff Reisman, my apologies that we currently do not have the ability to make this adjustable based on personal preference.

Thank you all for participating and sharing your voice and experience!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Paul Newcome

@Genevieve P. Well that's a bummer. I figured we would be in the minority with that opinion though, but it was at least worth a shot. Haha.

One thing that I do like about this is that it shows the increased communication between Smartsheet/Community and us users. I know a big complaint in the past was that requests and issues fell on deaf ears. This just goes to show that even something like auto-saving a draft is heard and discussed.

So even though I still have to deal with auto-save, I saw we're all winners for having more transparent communication! 👍️👍️

Kelly Moore

Spot on Paul!

Paul Newcome

@Kelly Moore To be honest... My initial thought was that we should just go on strike...

Genevieve P.

Very glad you didn't!

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