Support tables in templates and inspections

Oh you can upvote, if anyone’s also wanting Table in the Template Editor. Plz Uppvote!

Thank you for creating this idea @Ollie! I’ve updated the idea title so that it’s easier to find for other members :)

Thanks @jackihann 

Hi Ollie, been really wanting this feature too so gave you an upvote  I use tables in my own templates to display info too. What I do for now is to attach the table using an image/PDF file to an Instruction response type item. Might wanna give it a go.  

I have been on multiple sites now with forms that require basic tables as part of daily processes - in particular in manufacturing. This is a no-brainer from my point of view. 
@Paddy Bell 

Thanks for this team! We’re getting some great insight about the power ‘tables’ could have to solve many customer problems ‘big and small’ keep the feedback coming!

Hi Olly 

This is an awesome suggestion and would be extremely powerful if implemented - thanks Olly for bringing it up, it was in the back of my mind for a while. 

If I could make some suggestions for consideration

• The tables inside an inspection template could be configured just like ‘repeating sections’  except the user can select if they are displayed ‘horizontally’ rather than vertically as is the case now
• The user can add automatic numbering to each row to help with identification 
• The user could specify if they want to display the table on a separate page, as an appendix and the page orientation (Portrait or Landscape) and potentially page size (A4, A3)
• The header row columns contain the field names which repeats automatically if the table runs over a page. 
• Completed tables (including their values) are able to be exported to excel from the completed inspection report (which may then be reimported into other parts of the system e.g. Assets, Risks/Opportunity Registers once available)
• Users can edit table entries in a ‘grid view’ similar to Sharepoint 
• Users can raise actions linked to an individual row or the overall table 

I acknowledge that you would need to put some limits on number of fields and the width of the table and there is some complexities around page breaks + formatting but the above would be really useful to:

• Provides an alternative way to view information captured by repeating sections and makes it much easier to compare results/rows at a glance (rather than vertically which requires report consumers to scroll vertically a lot)
• Support task based risk assessments or SWMS to be developed and exported in a format that better aligns with industry practice 

Once you start to go down the path of using this table feature for SWMS or Risk Assessments, additional consideration will then need to be given to:

• Enabling users to configure and then select from a matrix (likelihood/probability and consequence/impact) 
• Enable users to select from global response sets such as hazards or controls
• Enabling SUM/Formula capability + conditional formatting for columns  

I appreciate there’s probably a bit to unpack here but thanks for considering my suggestion!

John

I think tables could be useful as a formatting tool for sections (regardless of being repeat or not).  Within a section header field of the template editor, a toggle could be added to “present as a table.”  If on, the questions inside the section could be displayed as column headers (left to right in the order that the questions are in the editor top to bottom), with a row below that for the responses.  Perhaps it’s even a user option (or a user option if the section has the setting turned on to allow it).  If it’s a repeat section, you are essentially adding a new row when you click the green “+” but the questions don’t need to be repeated because they are already in the header row.

I see some challenges with this though:

• Horizontal space will be limited so you would need to limit the number of questions allowed in the section.  On a phone, it will be really hard to display unless rotated to landscape. Your question text would be wrapped quite a bit.
• If you add a lot of repeat sections, you could have so many rows that you can’t see the header row (questions) any longer, unless it is made to “lock to the top” as you scroll down where the header hits the top of the screen, then moves out of the way if you scroll enough to get past the last row of the table.

Hi, 

Could you give some examples on how you will be using tables @Olly @John Smale @Corey?

I use repetitive sections, every field representing a row. The downside I can imagine now is the view for the end user, they’ll have to scroll up and down to see the previous answers, if needed.

For that a button at the end of the latest repetitive section, as an example, that shows you an image of the data so far collected in the repetitive sections, questions as column headers and responses as values. This could have a limit of 6 columns (set a number of columns that can be show in all devices with no space issues) as a norm showing the firs 6 questions but be able to customise what questions we would like to show.

In relation to extracting data, we did have some issues at the beginning but now I extract the data from Power BI and convert it into a table, easy table format.

Now, being able to add instructions and questions fields in a table format that is interesting for us just as@Macy do we also attach tables in PDF/Image we find it really helpful.

In my case it’s more of allowing the inspector or template editor (as a toggled option that is allowed or display default) to present a set of questions in a non-vertical manner.  Sometimes sections, especially when repeat, can get lengthy and confusing as to which you’re on if you scroll up or down.

For example, if I have a repeat section for “Doors” and my questions are “Is the bottom seal intact?,” “Is the window broken?,” “Is it locked?,” “Is it clean?”.  If I added 20 doors, I have 20 sets of repeat questions.  If you toggle the table option, those 4 questions become column headers left to right, and the 20 doors become rows.  I am no longer repeating the questions 20 times so it is a smaller, easier to see format.  I think the toggle to turn off table view should still exist.

I have a similar issue to Corey, and both our inspectors and end users of the final report find the fact that the linear repeated questions can’t be converted into a table, quite frustrating. The fact that we are repeating questions for different area/departments means that a potential 1 page section is appearing over 4 pages. 

Oh I see now. This is actually something very useful, we would allow the inspector/auditor see the responses from receptive section together, this will be way more easy to read than having the info all over the pages. Yes, I upvote for this!

 I really like this idea. It would save us heaps of time where we need to collect a number of figures or subsamples for a question e.g. How much water was collected in container 1A, 1B, 1C etc. This is a pain entering them as individual questions, let alone how it looks in the report.

As I went to edit a template, I just gave up and am going to have to go back to using Excel and have the auditor switch between programs. Below is a single task for measuring the water flow (output) of an irrigation system. To capture this data I need to ask 41 questions.

We would love to have the ability to be able to capture this data in Safety Culture.

yes - this feature would be great so we can do tables such as this