Workflow enhancement - copy a column/cell to another column/cell

MennoStassen

Action as final step in automation to copy value from 1 cell to another then allow the final cell to be locked.

(to record what a particular cell's value was at the time of another action)

Cleversheet

Here’s a clunky workaround for you:

Set up a workflow to copy that row from Sheet A to a helper Sheet B.
Use a cross-sheet formula in Sheet A to pull back into a [show-me-the-history] column the target cell value that’s now frozen into Sheet B.

cabbsman

@Cleversheet Thank you for your workaround. This is exactly how I mitigated the issue. I even found a much easier way and that is using Bridge. However, not everyone has access to Bridge so your recommendation is well received.

Thanks again!

DQ Aaron

In this example, it would be nice if there was a way to copy the "Follow Up Deficiencies" dropdown values into the "Extension Deficiencies" cell if the "RDO Recommends" value is input as the specific value "Extension". The copied values in the "Extension Deficiencies" cell are then completely separate from the "Follow Up Deficiencies" and can be removed individually (they do not change at all if "Follow Up Deficiencies" has any values added or removed).

Brian_Richardson

Why not on roadmap - clearly a heavily voted item that would be game changer. There's plenty of workflows where snapshotting a cell is invaluable. The workaround right now is to copy the entire row over to another sheet and read it back, what a PITA silly way to approach it.

Action: Change cell value. Options: fixed text value or value from another cell on the row.

(Andree - that PITA comment isn't aimed at you btw… glad to see you're offering folks an option in the thread)

clevercreatrix

+1 for this. I am currently using a behemoth of a Smartsheet as a project plan where most of the columns are for Project Management use only. To make it easy for business partners to jump in and out of the project, I created curated task lists using reports that only shows the information they need like the task name, status, and start/end date. The problem is that anything with a formula is not editable, like start/end date. We are a global team and I want to empower my partners to update information in real time. The only way I can make that happen is with an alternative Start and End Date. If I do that, there will be a constant manual copy/paste from Start Date to Alternative Start Date when ever a predecessor task moves. I would like to automate it so that whenever the Start Date Changes the Alternative Start Date synchronizes using automation not formulas.

cabbsman

@clevercreatrix this is a great use case. thanks. An idea to get you through until they make this change is to use Smartsheet's Bridge app. It does exactly what you want to do. If your company has purchased a license for the app, I strongly recommend taking a look at it. The reason why I asked for this change in the beginning is that not everyone has access to Bridge. Making it an automated workflow is more intuitive as well.

PSExcellence

One of the functionalities of the "project plan" template provided by smartsheet is to copy/paste your Start Date and End Date columns over into a Target Start Date and Target End Date column. On a huge project plan with a lot of hierarchies like my company uses, it's infuriating to have to expand everything that's been nicely collapsed in order to copy/paste all the dates over, and then spend a bunch of time re-collapsing it to how you had it. Being able to have an automation to copy values in one column over to another would fix this painpoint.

JonB

+1 - We need this!