Make Collapse ALL default

Chris E. · 01/07/22

What is the status of this request. It has been going on since 2016! It is hard to fathom that such a simple and foundation request has not been implemented, and these types of requests are a recurring theme. These seemingly simple, foundational, and extremely useful enhancement requests are completely ignored or never addressed for some reason.

Please advise. My entire professional world lives within Smartsheet; however, I am becoming more and more disenchanted when I find requests like these thrown by the wayside for years.

Respectfully,

Chris

Paul Newcome · 01/07/22

Are you referring to this?

Chris E. · 01/10/22

Hi Paul,

This does not set the view to collapse all by default. It simply collapses the everything once it is clicked. The issue is, when someone else expands the view within a parent row(s) that they are responsible for, it leaves the view expanded for everyone there after. When I have a Smartsheet with a thousand rows and hundreds of parent/children associations it becomes increasingly cumbersome to have to manually collapse all every time I open this Smartsheet. I am struggling with shy this is not an option here. I can set card view to default to collapse or expand all. Why can I not do this in the Grid View? It doesn't make any sense.

On another equally frustrating note, why can I not apply the filters that I created in the main Smartsheet to the reports? These are simple streamlined workflows that would make Smartsheet so much more efficient and the requests for these optimizations have been out there for years. As a Software Engineer with an extensive programming background, I could implement these much needed enhancements in my sleep, yet the development team at Smartsheet has for some reason ignored these requests and I am forced to look at third party applications via Zapier to accommodate what should be the most foundational elements of of this otherwise great product.

Thank you for listening to my concerns. I apologize for the rant, but I can truly envision the potential of this product and become very frustrated when I see requests for truly needed enhancements that are seemingly ignored for years.

Respectfully,

Chris

Paul Newcome · 01/10/22

I was just confirming that I was in fact understanding what you were referring to. I agree that being able to set that as a default for the sheet could be useful for a lot of people.

As for the report filters... Since each report is unique and has its own unique filters, it makes sense to me that applying filters from a sheet directly to a report is not an options. That also doesn't account for those reports that reference multiple sheets that could each have multiple filters built in.

Report filters are not intended to be regularly adjusted. They are intended to be a more "permanent" filter of sorts with only minor tweaks being made and have different sharing/access controls from the sheets.

I can understand why report filters need to be created from scratch each time, but again... I do agree that being able to set all rows as collapsed as a default would be handy.

huruta · 01/28/22

I'm brand spanking new to smartsheet and this is one of the first features I tried to implement. I want my task list to default to be a project level, by default, so when I open the sheet I can easily pick the project I'm working on, but I have to 'collapse all' manually do this every time I open smart sheet to get to this page? really???? Is there some other way to have a project level view when I first open so I can pick the project I want to work on? This should be easy so I suspect I'm missing something.

Chris E. · 01/28/22

Hi Paul, Tank you for the follow-up. I appreciate your response and insight; however, I believe that the Reports concept is flawed. If a report is meant to be a permanent reflection of the data from the Smartsheet, then we should not be able to manipulate the data in the report, i.e., change any existing information; however, we are able to do this. If I want to restrict a users view of the data that they can manipulate, it is done through reports as I am unable to restrict their view in the Smartsheet to specific columns or rows. Smartsheet did develop an interesting approach to this issue with Dynamic View; however, this too is half hearted as it does not allow me to batch update multiple Dynamic Views when I amend the primary Smartsheet.

The response that I received on this issue is that Dynamic view is meant to be tailored to a specific users view! Well, I have about 100 specific users that all need the same column added to their specific view, so I am forced to update each Dynamic View individually...every time I have to make an edit to the the main Smartsheet :( ! I was then told to use Reports as a work around by the Smartsheet developers Who are charged with supporting my hospital. Now you have to full backstory surrounding my frustration.

Please do not get me wrong. I think Smartsheet is incredible. I am just frustrated and a little disappointed about some of these shortcomings that have been issues for years. Issues identified by end users like me that have gone absolutely nowhere. I have a Software Engineering degree with extensive programming experience, which frustrates me even more, as I know how simple it can be to implement these foundational requests.

Thank you for your time and patience.

Kind Regards,

Chris

Paul Newcome · 01/28/22

I can speak to this point:

Well, I have about 100 specific users that all need the same column added to their specific view, so I am forced to update each Dynamic View individually...every time I have to make an edit to the the main Smartsheet

If you have a contact type column on your sheet, you can create one view and then filter it based on whoever is actively viewing it (current user). The same can be done in reports.

Andrée Starå · 01/29/22

Hi @Chris E.

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Paul's excellent advice/answer.

Another option to maybe explore could be the WorkApps App.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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JF Burguet · 03/09/23

Greetings,

When creating the report, did you try indicating that you wish the Group to be collapsed ?

Please let us know if that works for you. Thanks.

JF

Paul Newcome · 03/09/23

@JF Burguet That does work for reports, but I believe the original post was referring to sheets instead (which doesn't have a "collapsed" default view).

NJCunliffe · 03/16/23

I absolutely share the frustration. Despite setting my groups to collapse, on opening the reports, the groups auto-expand. It feels like a bug. If it is not a bug, it make no sense choose the option in the first place.

The 3rd picture is how it should behave.

tlc2323 · 03/30/23

When is this feature going to be available??

Paul Newcome · 03/30/23

@tlc2323 Have you checked the Product Ideas tab to see if it has been officially submitted as a product enhancement request? If it has, then you can add your vote, and there will be an indicator to show its status on the roadmap. If it has not, then you can submit it yourself to allow others to add their vote and to let Smartsheet know that people are interested in the feature.

Karene · 07/03/23

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/366400#Comment_366400

This worked for me! thank you!

Chris E. · 07/05/23

Hi Karene,

Thank you for taking the time to look into this; however, it is not a report that I am struggling with. It is the main working Smartsheet. They built the functionality into reports and it works the way that it should. You would think that this could be easily scaled to the main Smartheet. I am struggling with many of these basic functional processes that should be a foundational part of Smartsheet but have been overlooked. I Submitted an enhancement request 4 years ago and did not even receive a response. The original enhancement request was submitted in 2016! I can write the code for this in my sleep. Ultimately, I am looking into other options for our Health System. This is just one of MANY foundational opportunities that I have submitted since 2019 that will likely never come to fruition.

Thank you again for your response.

Make Collapse ALL default

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