Question

Change new worksheet name with Copy Worksheet Google Sheets action

  • 10 October 2021
  • 6 replies
  • 814 views

Userlevel 1

Hi everyone!

I'm using the copy worksheet action from Google Sheets integration, but instead of duplicating an specific worksheet by creating a new one called "Copy of XXX", I would like to change the worksheet copy name. Is there any way to make it possible?

 

If I use “Create Worksheet” instead, I can specify the title but it’s obviously created blank and I lose all the other data that I want to transfer from the old worksheet, without any way to copy the content from the old worksheet to the new one.


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6 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @Robby2023 

Perhaps use the GDrive Copy File instead?

 

Userlevel 1

Hello @Troy Tessalone ,

I can't use copy file because I expect to create a lot of worksheets which would be crazy if each of them becomes a new file...

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Robby2023 

Perhaps you can describe your use case more for us to better understand.

If you are going to create lots of worksheets, that may get difficult to manage in 1 spreadsheet.

Plus there are limits on the number of cells you can have in 1 GSheet across the tabs.

 

A Google Sheets document can have a maximum of 5 million cells.
These can be in a single worksheet or in multiple sheets.
Blank cells count.
Userlevel 2

I would like to loudly echo this functionality request!

 

My use case is the following:


- I have a Google Sheet for tracking my freelance consulting hours for a variety of clients. Each client has its own worksheet in this single Sheets file.

- I have a Zap for populating these sheets automatically, triggered by any new time entry in my time-tracking platform Toggl.

- I have another Zap for generating an invoice for each client at the end of each month in my invoicing platform, Wave (I have some gripes about Wave’s Action options too, but those are unrelated).

- I’m trying to set it up so that when a time tracking entry comes through for a client that does not yet have a worksheet in my spreadsheet file, Zapier creates a new sheet for that client, then populates that sheet as usual.

Here’s the problem. The only action options I have are insufficient for my needs.

I could:

  1. Use the Copy Worksheet action

    Problem: I can’t specify a new title for the copied sheet (it should be named the same as the name of the client) and therefore the auto-population Zap won’t work (it’s looking up which sheet to use by the client name). There’s also no “rename worksheet” action to do it in a separate step.
     
  2. Use the Create New Worksheet action

    Problem: While I can specify the new sheet’s title and column headings, I cannot retain the cell formatting options I’ve configured in Google Sheets (most importantly: the way the date-time stamps are displayed) and those need to be kept consistent. I don’t want to have to do all of my data reformatting within the data population step—it’ll add a lot of tasks that shouldn’t be necessary, since Google Sheets will already format the data dropped in per the format I’ve set for each column.
     
  3. Use the Copy File Google Drive action

    Problem: I need these sheets to all live within the same Google Sheets file, both for my own organization/sanity, and to ensure my data population Zap can stay flexible and reliable.

    ​​​​​​​

The best option I can think of at the moment is using either option 1 or option 2, then adding a step that pings me (via SMS or something) to tell me to either go rename the new worksheet or go configure cell format options in the new worksheet. But I’d have to do that step manually, like a caveman (:wink:).

 

Zapier team:
Please please please allow us to set the title of a copied worksheet when using the Copy Worksheet action (and/or add a separate “Rename Worksheet” action)!

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @arussellfalla 

Best to submit feedback and feature requests via Zapier Support: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

 

Also, I’d recommend looking into using an operational database (ODB) app such as Airtable instead of GSheets: https://zapier.com/apps/airtable/integrations

Airtable has Views with Filters: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/202624989-Guide-to-views

So you could configure 1 View per Client.

Userlevel 2

That’s a fair suggestion. I’m trying to avoid unnecessary “SaaS sprawl”, so adding a new platform to the mix isn’t my first choice, but I’ll consider it.

Will also submit feature request at the address provided—thanks, @Troy Tessalone .