This weekend we made some major updates to one of the most popular features in Smartsheet: web forms. They make collecting information, collaborating, and taking action simple. Now, it’s easier to customize web forms – check out the drag-and-drop form builder, new custom field options, and nifty confirmation options in the ‘Forms Options’ field of the form builder.
In addition to these enhancements, it’s now possible to save more than one web form per sheet.
When Would You Need Multiple Forms Per Sheet?
Multiple forms per sheet are handy when you’re looking to gather information from different groups of people, but want to compile that information in the same spot. For example, let’s say you want a way to collect information from your website from people who are either (1) requesting information on products or (2) those who would like to be a reseller of your products.
For both of these inquiries, some of the information that you’ll want to collect is the same (for example, personal information like name, email address, and phone number). However, each will also have a few different questions tailored to their needs (for example, reseller region from those inquiring about reseller opportunities).
Keeping all inquiries on the same sheet will save your team time and hassle because everyone is working from the same place.
We’ll walk you through how to set up multiple forms per sheet, and how to use ‘Hidden Fields’ and ‘Default Values’ to keep the different information straight.
The Nitty Gritty
- Just like everything else in Smartsheet, the basis for your process begins in a sheet. Start from a blank sheet, a template from our Template Gallery, or one of your existing sheets.
Here’s the sheet for our example of collecting both Product and Reseller Inquiries.
With the sheet designed, the next step is customizing your web form. To set-up and edit, click the ‘Web Forms’ tab on the bottom of your sheet and click ‘Create New Form’.
This will take you to the Web Form Editor. By default, the title of the form corresponds to the sheet name and the fields of the form correspond to the names of the sheet columns. All of these fields are editable. Web form items are on the left, and when you select one item, its editable properties appear on the right.
We’ll start by making a form for Product Inquiries. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to move around fields and group certain questions together, to get your web form just right.
- Once you’ve customized the form fields, add a field for ‘Source Page’ – since you’ll have inquiries from both Product and Reseller folks. Make this field a ‘Hidden Field’ (so it won’t be seen by anyone filling out your form) with the default value of ‘Product web page.’ Now, each time the Product form is submitted, this default value will be added to your sheet – automatic differentiation!
- Follow these same steps to customize your web form for Reseller Inquiries, with different columns for Reseller-specific information.
- Now, you can post the URLs for each web form on your website, and all responses will compile in the same sheet. To check on the status of your web forms, click the ‘Web Form’ tab for a dashboard view of all your forms.
This is just one example of a scenario in which multiple forms are helpful. Use multiple forms per sheet to consolidate job applicants, surveys to multiple groups, and detailed feedback forms.
The possibilities are endless – what will you do with them? Tell us here in a comment, or enter the Web Form Frenzy for a chance to win!
Til next week, dig in and explore!
- Support Team