Switch Between Views to Work More Effectively

by Renee Coulombe
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In order to help you work more efficiently, Smartsheet has four views that enable you to see and work with your data in different ways. These views help provide project clarity and visibility and let you work using your preferred way to visualize information related to your projects and processes.

Grid view, the standard view you see when setting up your sheets, displays your data in a spreadsheet format. This view is a great place to start when setting up project information and task requirements. However, exploring the three other views in Smartsheet can help you see your data in new ways, quickly visualize timelines, and organize tasks into actionable groups.
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Learn how card view, Gantt view, and calendar view enable you to take your sheets to the next level, expand your view, and help you work more effectively:
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Card View

Smartsheet card view is a visual way to prioritize, communicate, and collaborate on work that is inspired by Kanban boards and the Agile Methodology. It helps make information and data more approachable so that you always see the big picture, make sure your projects are on track, and identify potential gaps in your plan.

With card view, you and the people you work with can organize tasks, work items, or ideas into actionable groups. Moving an item from one group to another—from “To Do” to “Done” or from one assignee to another for example—can be accomplished by dragging a card from one lane to the next.

Card view strengthens communication and collaboration between teams, providing a more visual way to see, share, and act on projects together.
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Gantt View

Gantt view provides you with a visual timeline of your work. This view is a staple in traditional waterfall project management, but can also be used anytime you want a visual representation of your schedule and the relationship between tasks.

Display tasks in your sheets and reports as bars in a timeline with a Gantt chart. It allows you to see a picture of the duration, as well as the start and finish date of your project’s events. To set up this view your sheet must contain a start date and end date.

Calendar View

Calendar view provides an interactive and easily customizable view of your work on a calendar. You also have the ability to publish or overlay this view on to a Google calendar or an iCal in Outlook or Apple calendars.

Just like the other sheet views in Smartsheet, calendar view is driven by the column types in your sheet. In order to create a calendar, you must have at least one date column. You can get more comprehensive with both a start and end date for a task to show date ranges.
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Setting up calendar view will provide you with high-level visibility into your project schedule and let you see when different tasks start, end, or their entire task duration all at once.

At Smartsheet, we know that the way you work is not one size fits all. These four views can help you visualize work in new ways and execute projects with confidence. Learn more about how you can set up your sheets so that you can easily switch between views here.

​Source: Smartsheet Blog
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