Use column links in Control Center

Use column links in Control Center to execute advanced portfolio actions, simplify copying, and effortlessly manage interconnected data across all your sheets.

Column links in Control Center let you:

  • Enable advanced portfolio actions that enhance the complexity of automated tasks across your projects.
  • Simplify copying tasks to effortlessly maintain critical data connections.
  • Enhance management by easily overseeing portfolios to track how different sheets are interconnected.

For global update functionality, it’s recommended that they be used only in blueprints that meet the requirements for Enhanced Global Updates, as these blueprints cannot be updated using Legacy Global Updates. To check if your blueprints meet the criteria, see Control Center: Enhanced global updates overview


Portfolio actions in Control Center

Column links in Control Center enable the following portfolio actions:

Create projects with contained sheets

A container is when a source or target sheet is stored in a folder, workspace, or portfolio template. 

When you create a project by copying a container —such as a folder, workspace, or portfolio template—that already includes both source and target sheets for an existing column link configuration, the system automatically replicates that configuration. This ensures the newly copied sheets maintain their column links, establishing connections within the new project without requiring manual setup.

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Process for copying contained sheets from a source sheet to a target sheet

Add and update column links in portfolio templates

If you manage projects that originated from portfolio templates, you can add new column links to your sheets and then link them to other sheets. This allows you to create custom column links, even if those links weren't part of the original portfolio template.

You can also modify the column links within a sheet in a portfolio template, regardless of whether that sheet serves as a source or a target. Control Center ensures that these updates are applied to all projects previously created from that template, maintaining consistency across the entire portfolio. 

Keep in mind that these can only be updated through Enhanced Global Updates. They cannot be updated via legacy Global Updates.

These updates could be:

  • Adding a new column link configuration to a sheet in a portfolio template.
  • Removing a column link configuration from a sheet in a portfolio template.
  • Modifying existing column link configurations: Any changes to an existing link, such as updating a Unique Identifier column mapping, altering a source or target column mapping, or adding and removing individual column mappings within a link.

If a user in a specific project (created from the template) has manually added new column links, Control Center removes those project-specific additions when the underlying portfolio template's column link configurations are updated.

You can also duplicate a column link configuration using Save as New… Learn more in the Manage column links article. 


You're now ready to leverage column links in Control Center. Column links empower you to manage complex projects, streamline operations, and ensure seamless data flow across your entire portfolio.