Sheetward User Guide

Laying out a form

Every Form_ sheet describes one form. Sheetward reads the sheet's layout — where the field names sit, where the sample values sit — and works out the fields, their order and the form's shape. This page shows every layout it understands, from a quick single-section form, through the classic header-plus-line-items document, to a long form grouped into sections.

Form title. Type the form's display title in cell A1 and leave the row below it empty — or start a section marker such as HEADER there. The title becomes the form's heading in the app, and the empty row shows Sheetward where the title ends and the fields begin.

Single-section forms — one set of fields, and two ways to write them. Pick whichever reads better to you:

• Fields in columns. Write the field names across one row, with sample values in the row (or rows) beneath — one column per field, like a small table. Sample values only teach Sheetward each field's data type; they are never imported as records.
• Field : value pairs. One field per row — the field name in column A, a sample value beside it. It reads like a paper form.

Two-section forms — the classic document, like a purchase order: a header (one record) with a repeating line-items table beneath it, marked with HEADER and LINE ITEMS rows:

• Header section: its fields can use either arrangement — columns, or field : value pairs.
• Line-items section: always the column arrangement — one row of field names above the item rows — and always placed below the header section.

Grouped forms — a long form, split into sections that make sense to the reader. Instead of one HEADER banner, write a banner per group and list that group's fields beneath it:

• One banner per group. Put the group's name on its own row — IDENTIFICATION, WARRANTY, LOCATION — with its fields below, in either arrangement (columns or field : value pairs). The app draws one card per banner, in sheet order.
• Banners go in CAPITALS. The capitals are the signal that a row starts a group rather than labelling a value — for Sheetward and for anyone reading the sheet. A lower-case title stops the upload with an error.
• Every banner is different. The app labels its cards — and targets its translations — by section name, so a repeated banner is an error too.
• Still one record. Grouping changes the layout and nothing else — every field lands in the same record, so exports, imports, rules and formulas behave exactly as they did before you split the form up.
• A form can carry several line tables. Give each grid an ALL-CAPS banner ending in LINES or LINE ITEMS — PART LINES, LABOR LINE ITEMS — each with its own name, below the header. The classic single LINE ITEMS table works exactly as before; once there are several grids, every banner needs the suffix, so a stray pasted table never becomes a phantom section.

Reach for groups once a form gets long — past a dozen or so fields, or whenever the fields fall into natural topics. A short form needs no markers at all. Section titles are translatable: add a section row to the Translation_ sheet for each banner.