March 2023 Newsletter - Minimizing widgets, in-product tutorials, and a flashcards custom widget!

March Newsletter

The March 2023 Newsletter has a quick summary of improvements made to Grist in the last month.

The Big Grist Survey! :fire:

Help improve Grist by taking our 5-question user experience poll! There may even be a prize! :rainbow::moneybag:

Want to work at Grist?

Do you love Grist and love marketing? Check out our new job openings at https://www.getgrist.com/jobs/.

What’s New

Minimizing Widgets

Need more room on your dashboard? Have a widget that doesn’t need to be in view at all times? You can now collapse widgets into buttons at the top of the page! The widget will expand on click and will retain dynamic linking with other widgets in the page.

Minimizing Widgets

Grist Basics In-Product Tutorial

Learning Grist has never been easier! Check out our new hands-on tutorial. This step-by-step guide will give you the basics to go from spreadsheets to productive dashboards.

Grist Basics Tutorial

Open Source Contributions

Column Descriptions

Thank you to @CamilleLegeron who made it possible to add descriptions to columns. :tada::pray: You may now set column descriptions in the creator panel.

Column Descriptions

Custom Widget Calendar View

@ToJans on Twitter shared his calendar custom widget, as well as a link you can incorporate into your own docs. Check out his tweet. It works! :muscle:

TASTEME() ??

Last month we also received a new function from @DysfunctionalWerewolf. The TASTEME() function returns True for tasty text, False for not tasty text. It’s…useful? :thinking: @DysfunctionalWerewolf showed off the function in action on Twitter @were_functions.

We had fun trying to crack the pattern for what is and isn’t tasty! Let us know if your data is, uh, werewolf approved?

Update on the Grist Electron App — Sandboxing!

Good news, everyone! The Grist electron app now has sandboxing by default. Anyone can download the app without having to compile from source or know Docker. Finally, a super easy way to run Grist locally on your computer.

Local Spreadsheets

Learn more on Github.

Find the right download file in this list.

Sponsor Grist on Github

Want to show your support for our open source project? Post about us on all your socials and tell your friends! If you want to do even more, consider sponsoring us on Github. :orange_heart:

We’re grateful to our first corporate sponsor Dotphoton, and to sponsor @Emanuele_Gissi :pray:

SPONSOR GRIST

Learning Grist

Webinar: Trigger Formulas

Grist formulas can be set to trigger on specific record events. Learn all about trigger formulas, when to use them, and common uses of trigger formulas to keep your data organized and productive.

Wednesday April 12th at 3:00 pm US Eastern Time.

SIGN UP FOR APRIL’S WEBINAR

Data Cleaning

In March, Natalie shared tips for cleaning your data fast in Grist, including a few Grist-only tricks.

New Template and Custom Widget

Flashcards

Ready to ace your next test? You’ll score :100: when you study with these baddies. Flashcards are one of the most effective forms of study — and with Grist they’re all in one place.

5 Likes

Hi Grist-Team,

Thanks again for all of your activity !
Minimify widget helps a lot for dashboard or when switching from 22" to 13".

Just one thing regarding the comments for column, would it be possible to have a tool tip in the widget when mouse is hover the column (would give extra information while enabling to keep column name short).

Have a good day !

Just one thing regarding the comments for column, would it be possible to have a tool tip in the widget when mouse is hover the column (would give extra information while enabling to keep column name short).

Yes! That is in the works.

2 Likes

Hello Anais,

I’m happy with minimified widget, that’s a great improvement.
Yet I’m thinking of adding some quite import forms with possibly lots of information.
This is the kind of form that typically does not fit in fullscreen and it needs scrolling.
Cutting it into multiple subforms is handy as it needs also to be audited, presented to teams and so on.

→ So is there plans to have some scrollable widget layout ? :slight_smile: