Use Conditional Logic to Streamline Form Submissions

With conditional logic in forms, you can ensure that people using the form will only answer the questions that are relevant to their submission by showing specific fields based on their answers to other questions. For example:

1. You create a form to manage IT Help Desk requests.
2. The person using the form chooses IT Equipment as their Request Type.
3. Several fields related to IT Equipment requests are displayed in the form while the unrelated IT Support request fields are not displayed.

You can also conditionally show other form elements, such as headers, dividers, and attachments to better align those elements with associated questions.

Create a form and conditionally display fields 

To create a new form and add rules to conditionally display fields and other form elements:

1. Open the sheet that you want to attach the form to.
2. Select Forms > Create Form on the menu bar at the top-left of the Smartsheet window.
3. Select the field that will determine which other fields and form elements are displayed based on its value. This is considered the source field for your rule.
4. In the Field Settings on the right, select the Logic tab and then select Add Logic.
5. In your rule’s condition, which always begins with When, define the operator (varies based on field type) and the value(s) of the source field that determines when the target fields and elements should be shown.
   
   
6. To set up your rule’s action (beginning with Then), select the fields and form elements you want to display when the condition is met. These are considered targets for your rule.
7. Click Add at the bottom-right of your rule to add it to the source field.
8. If you want to add another rule to this source field, click the +Add rule link
9. Once you’ve added all of the fields and rules to your form, you can save and preview the form by selecting Open Form in the top-right corner of the Form Builder.

Viewing logic on your form

Fields with conditional logic are indicated by logic icons next to the field name. 

Source fields are indicated by the icon. Click on the icon to open the Logic tab for that field. 

Target fields and elements are indicated by the icon. Hover over the icon to see all conditions that apply to that field or element.. 

Behavior of conditional logic

Keep the following behavior in mind as you work with conditional logic in your forms:

• Target fields and elements will not be displayed by default, and they are displayed when at least one of the source conditions are met.
• Target fields will only submit data to the sheet if they are displayed when the form is submitted. 
• Required target fields are only required if they are displayed when the form is submitted.
• Editing the Column Type or Values of fields used in your conditional logic may affect existing rules. 
• If you remove a field from the form, associated logic may also be removed.
• When more than one logic rule affects a target field or element, it will be shown when any of the rules are satisfied. 
• If you hide a field with the Hidden toggle in the Field Settings, any rules associated with that field are overridden.

Tips for using conditional logic

Use these tips to create more versatile rules with conditional logic:

• Choosing an appropriate operator from the blue dropdown for your rule’s condition can help you to shorten your rule and reduce the need for multiple rules.
  • Example 1: If multiple responses in a dropdown source field can result in the same target field(s) being displayed on the form, there’s no need to create a separate rule for each source field response. Instead use a single rule with the is any of operator in the condition.
    
  • Example 2: If you want to display a target field in more cases than not, listing all of those cases can be inefficient. Instead, accomplish the same result with a shorter condition that using inverse operators such as is not. For instance, if you want to display Field 2 in all cases except when [Value A] is selected in [Field 1], you can use the following rule:
    
• A target field can also be a source field, and this allows you to create nested logic. For example, the answer to Question 1 can cause the form to display Question 2, and the answer to Question 2 can cause the form to display Question 3. If the answer to Question 1 changes such that Question 2 is not displayed, then Question 3 will not be displayed either.
• You can standardize the submissions on your form by using dropdown lists to mimic numeric conditions. For example, instead of allowing the form user to enter a budget value into a text field, make a budget dropdown field with value options such as “Over $10,000.” Then add conditional logic rules to display certain fields when someone chooses one or more of the value options.
• Smartsheet forms are linked to the sheet, so if you change the field type or values on the sheet, it may affect the conditional logic on the forms on that sheet. Conditional logic rules are edited or deleted if form fields or values that affect logic change. To ensure your form functions as you expect, view the form builder or test it out after you make changes to the sheet or form.