The busiest time of the year is in full swing - and who doesn’t love to save a little extra time? This week we’re featuring three often overlooked features in Smartsheet that can help you save a little time in your day. Whether you’re looking to calculate a sum without a formula or want a
different way to incorporate important emails into your work in Smartsheet, read on for a few quick tips.
1) Fill down information with Ctrl+D
Looking for a way to fill down data in your sheet? Ctrl+D (command+D on Macs) is the unsung hero of keyboard shortcuts. Use it to quickly copy information in your lengthiest sheets:
- First, click on the cell with the data you want to copy, or the formula you’d like to duplicate.
- Then, use your scroll bar to navigate to the end point (much quicker than dragging!)
- Next, shift + click on your end point. This will highlight the source cell and all the cells in between down to the end point.
- Finally, use Ctrl+D to quickly copy the value down
For example, use Ctrl+D to fill down a formula in a sheet with many rows.
2) Instantly add up values without using a formula
You don’t need to be a formula wizard to quickly calculate data in your sheet. Get a quick idea of how much you’ve spent for an event or where your team’s budget stands.
Try this:
- Highlight the cells you’d like to sum
- With all cells highlighted, check the bottom right corner of your browser, below your sheet. You’ll see COUNT: which will count the number of cells highlighted, SUM: which will reflect the total sum of your highlighted cells, and AVG: reflects the average of your highlighted cells.
Here are some extra tips for using this nifty functionality:
- You can quickly count the total values in an entire column by highlighting the column header. Do the same with a row by highlighting it (click just left of the row number).
- Apply a filter to narrow down the data in a column – then highlight the information you’d like calculated for some more customized numbers.
NOTE: When you have a filter applied and click on the column header, Smartsheet will calculate everything in the column regardless of the filter.
- If the cells that you highlight contain dates, you’ll see the oldest date and the future date as MIN: and MAX: dates, respectively.
3) Save emails as attachments
Try a different way of keeping correspondence saved in Smartsheet by adding emails as attachments to rows. Just another option to keep everything you need all in one place.
For all you Outlook users out there – when you open an email from your Outlook inbox, you can save it as an attachment in your sheets. Use File > Save As and select Outlook Message Format as the type of file to save. Once saved, you can attach the email directly to a row. When other Outlook users click open the attachment from your sheet, it will launch in Outlook. Use this approach to attaching emails for more than a record of correspondence.
Templatize emails you frequently send related to the process you’re managing in Smartsheet. Save standard customer emails in your Sales Pipeline sheet, client contract communications and replying to customer requests with standard responses.
Don’t worry Gmailers, you can save emails as attachments too. Open up an email and use the
Print option to save the email as a PDF (when you’re in the email message go to More Options > Print and change the Printer Destination option to Save As PDF).
Just another way to keep everything in the context of your work.
How about you? Do you have a favorite overlooked shortcut that we didn’t cover this week, that you just can’t live without? Let us know – we’re all for making the most of our day, too.
Til next week, dig in and explore!
- Support Team