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In Smartsheet, you have several options for exporting your sheets and reports. You can export any sheet or report to Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or PDF, and you can export project sheets to Microsoft Project. However, you need to be aware of a few caveats for exporting. The following sections show you how to export into each format and what you need to know when you do.

Attachments won’t be exported along with the sheet. You need to request a backup of the sheet to have those included. However, discussions are exported, though they will appear differently in the export.

Exporting to Microsoft Project

It’s best to export project sheets to Microsoft Project, especially if they include Gantt charts. If you try to export project sheets with Gantt charts to Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you’ll get only the task list because those applications don’t support Gantt charts.

To export into Microsoft Project, follow these steps:

  1. In Smartsheet, view the project sheet you want to export.

  2. Click the Sheet Actions button at the top-left of the toolbox on the left and choose Export.

  3. Choose Export to MS Project (XML).

  4. You’ll be asked whether to open the document or save the file. Choose Save File and click OK.

The sheet is saved as an XML file, which you can then import into Microsoft Project.

Export to Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets

To export into Excel, follow the same steps as above, but choose Export to Excel in Step 3. You’ll be asked to either open the file in Excel or save it.

To export to Sheets, follow the same steps, but choose Export to Google Spreadsheet. A new browser window opens asking you to log in to your Google Account. You have to allow Smartsheet to access your Google account by clicking the Accept button on the “Smartsheet would like to” screen. Then, you see a dialogue box telling you that the export was successful. Click the Open in Google Drive button to view the sheet.

Here are a few things you need to know about exporting to Excel and Sheets:

  • Excel and Sheets don’t support columns that have drop-down lists, contact lists, checkboxes, and so forth. When you export, only the values that are currently selected in the sheet are preserved.

  • Discussions in the sheet appear on a separate tab in the exported spreadsheet in Excel.

  • Formulas are not preserved in the export because of the difference in syntax between the programs. Instead, you get the actual values that are in the cells. You have to recreate any formulas, using Excel’s or Sheet’s formula syntax.

Export to PDF

Exporting to PDF is a little different than exporting to Excel or Sheets. It’s more like printing the sheet. Follow the steps above, but choose Export to PDF in Step 3, which displays the PDF Setup dialogue box (see Figure 1). Here are your options:

  • Selection: If you don’t highlight any rows in the sheet, then Entire Sheet will be selected. To export only certain rows, you need to click Cancel and highlight the rows you want to export, and then choose Export to PDF again.

  • Gantt Date Range: If your project sheet is in Gantt view, then you can choose to include all dates or a custom date range. To not include the Gantt chart in your PDF export, cancel out of the box and choose grid view for your sheet.

  • Paper size: Choose your paper size. Keep in mind that some people may want to print the PDF, so keeping it at a standard paper size is wise.

  • Margins: The default 0.5 inches is standard, but you can change these if you want.

  • Orientation: Choose either portrait or landscape. Landscape probably works best if you have a lot of columns.

  • Scaling: You can adjust the percentage to make the data appear smaller or larger in the PDF. You can also choose Fit to Width; however, this may result in some small, hard-to-read text if your sheet has a lot of columns to fit to a single page’s width.

  • Options: Most of these are self-explanatory. Click the Edit button to choose which columns to include in the PDF and check or uncheck the boxes to include things like logo, sheet name, and so on.

After you’re finished choosing options, click OK and decide whether to open the PDF or save it.

Figure 1: Export options for PDF.
Figure 1: Export options for PDF.

Source: smartsheet.com

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