Spreadsheet Order

[Former Community Member]

I created a form in Designer7 and am having a hard time trying to understand how the order is determined for when it is converted to a spreadsheet. I thought it was determined by alphabetical order. I went to a friends place and converted it with Designer8 and the order was completely different. What gives??? How can I establish in what order they will show up on a spreadsheet that will be consistent. For example, I named each field like this - A, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2, E, F

On one computer it would place them in that order in another it would put the C2 before C1.



In the form some of the fields are, say, after things like "Organization". In 7 they are in the right order on the Spreadsheet - on 8 "Organization" will come before "E" if it is on the form before E.



What is the consistent method to get them on the spreadsheet where I want them?

[Former Community Member]

Let me ask this another way...

What determines the order (A-ZZ) in the report.csv spread sheet report; the alphabetical hierarchy of the field name?, the order in which it was placed in the form?, AND what is different between Designer 7 and 8?

[Former Community Member]

The first thing I would check is the Hierarchy View of your form layout. The fields should be organised in the order you wish to receive them. Then ensure that only those data items you wish to transfer to the spreadsheet are set to Normal - all the others should be set to None. Hope this helps.

[Former Community Member]

I re-did the hierarchy for one form and it worked. What is interesting is that even though the hierarchy was what changed the Version 8 conversion the version 7 hierarchy was determined by the alphabetical name of the field in the original form.



In another form I used the Normal/None to organize and that was a complete waste. None, as I discovered, meant you got nothing back and the hierarchy forced what was on different pages to be moved to the first page. The old method of version 7 to give priority to an alphabetically ordered field name worked much better and should be included as a way of organizing the feedback/conversion to a spread sheet. I guess I am going to have to completely redo that form. AND hope version 9 offers more ways to organize the order on a spread sheet.



I have some other questions but will post them under a different subject.



I really did appreciate your feedback - Thank you...