Control Center Global Updates: Profile Data | Smartsheet Learning Center

Project profile data (or metadata) serves as the high level information for projects in your portfolio. Profile Data can be used to:

Define the project with values such as Project Name, Description, Owner, Budget, Due Date
Create status tracking metrics or KPIs with values such as % Complete, Forecast End Date, Project Health

You can specify static values, or define a formula for tracking a specific metric. For example, create Profile Data for tracking At Risk tasks in projects by specifying a formula that counts all cells where an At Risk checkbox has been checked.

Use the Add New Profile Data Global Update type to add new Profile Data to your templates and existing projects.

To add new Profile Data in your Control Center portfolio:

Navigate to Control Center > Manage Program > Global Updates and select the Add Profile Data update type.
Name your update, then select the blueprint and template you want to use.
Name the Profile Data in Field, add the desired Value, and select the Templates you want to update.
- Select Test Formula to test any formula changes in a testing sheet before committing your updates.
- Select Add Field to create multiple Profile Data fields at once. Note that any fields you create will all be applied to the templates you select in the update.
Complete the Global Update to test and apply your changes. See Test and Validate Your Changes for more information.

After you run the Global Update, the new Profile Data fields appear in project sheets and templates, in the Summary hierarchy in those sheets.

NOTE: To run a Find/Replace update for Profile Data fields, select Add Condition in Advanced Options, then select [Row] in Select test and set the condition to is Profile Data.

Restrictions with Find/Replace

Some column types are either unavailable to SCC Find/Replace or are available, but with restrictions. These column types are listed in the following table.

Column or Cell Data Type	Ignored by Find/Replace	Available with Restrictions	Notes
System	Yes	No	-
Columns designated in your Project Settings: Start date column End date column Predecessor column	Yes	No	-
Contact List	No	Yes	See Restrictions on Contact List Column Data
Date	No	Yes	See Restrictions on Date Column Data
Duration	No	Yes	Duration column data is matched strictly by matching the string. Find/Replace will not perform any conversion of the duration. For example, if your Find string on a Duration column is 2d it will only match cells that contain the value 2d—it will not match a duration of 16h.
Comments	Yes	No
Any cell with an inbound cell link	Yes	No	Note that outbound cell links can be modified.
Cells with hyperlink	Yes	No	-
Cells with images	Yes	No	-

Restrictions on Contact List Column Data

The value in the Find box must either be the full name of the person that is displayed in the sheet or the email address associated with that contact. You can specify either Joe Smith or joe.smith@mbfcorp.com.

Values in Contact List columns must be exact matches. For the Find value, you must use one of the following in the Restrict to box:

is equal to
is not equal to
is blank
is not blank

For the Replace with value, the Restrict to box in Advanced Options must be set to replace the entire cell. If you use any other values for Restrict to, Contact List columns will be skipped (but other column types will be processed).

When using Find/Replace with Contact List columns, use the email address rather than a contact name.

Restrictions on Date Column Data

Cells in Date columns will only match the Find value when one of the following restrictions are specified:

is equal to
is not equal to
is blank
is not blank

If any other restriction is specified, Date columns will be skipped. Similarly, the Replace restriction must use replace the entire cell or Date columns will be skipped.

For example, if using a Find value of "01/30" and Replace with value of "02/01" while Restrict to is contains, this will NOT match a cell in a Date column that is set to “01/30/2017” because the contains restriction is being used. If these values are included in the update, this operation will be run for Text/Number column types.

When you enter a date in the Find or Replace box and a Date (or Date/Time) column is selected, you’ll receive a warning indicating how the date will be interpreted (for example, February 15, 2018). You’ll have the option to convert the value to a universal date format (YYYY-MM-DD). Converting to a universal date format is a good best practice for matching Date columns: it can help you avoid confusion caused by different date display formats (for example, mm/dd/yy or dd/mm/yy).

Dates in Smartsheet are displayed according to each user’s personal settings. Date display is controlled at the user level in Personal Settings. For more information about date formats, see Changing the Default Date and Number Format (via the Language Setting).