Do you ever skim articles online and find your eyes drawn to bulleted lists? What about text that is bold or italicized? Effective formatting can be extremely powerful – especially when used strategically. It can quickly surface important details and make it easier for readers to find the information you want them to see.
You can use these same tactics in your sheets – some simple strategies and tricks will make it easier for your data to stand out to more effectively communicate with your team.
Take these three tricks for a whirl:
The Disappearing Checkbox
Add a checkbox column to a sheet and you’ll notice when you type information on a new row, a checkbox will automatically pop up. With category or parent rows, you may not need these checkboxes. There’s a simple formatting trick to help out with that.
Check out the parent rows “User Management Enhancements” and “Form Enhancements” in the sheet below – they really stand out for a few reasons: the copy is bold, the background is grey, and there are no checkboxes.
Here’s how to make it happen:
- Type any letter or a dash ( - ) in the column with the checkbox.
- While on the cell, click on the Font Color button on the left-hand toolbar and change it to the same color as the background of the cell.
- Copy this cell entry (Ctrl+C for PC or Command+C for Mac) to similar cells to hide other checkboxes.
You can use this same trick on Symbol columns (like the Harvey Ball shown in the Priority column in our example above, or others like RYG balls or Stars)
New Lines in a Single Cell
When you have specific instructions or a lot of information to explain about a certain task, it’s helpful to include a few paragraphs in one cell.
Line breaks make dense information easier to digest and find, even when you have a lot you need to say:
Here are a few steps to take to format your sheet like the example above:
- First, make sure that the cell or column is formatted to wrap the text within the cell.
- Type away! Add as much content as you’d like to the cell – when you’re at a point where you’d like start a new line, simply press [Ctrl] + [Enter].
- Want to add a blank line to create paragraphs in your cell? Press [Ctrl] + [Enter] twice.
Add Bullet Points in a Cell
Bullet points are a great way to concisely convey important pieces of information or instructions:
You can easily add bullet points to any cell in Smartsheet:
- Start by double-clicking on the cell to go into edit mode.
- At the point that you want to insert a bullet, on a Windows-based computer press Alt + 0149 (typed from the numeric keypad). On a Mac, press option-8.
Got any other formatting tricks up your sleeves? We’d love to hear how you make your important information pop, leave your tips as a comment!
Til next week, dig in and explore!
- Support Team