Sheetward User Guide

Form specification

Every Form_ sheet describes one form. Sheetward reads the sheet's layout to work out the fields, their order and the form's shape — this page shows the layouts it supports, from a quick single-section form through the classic header-plus-line-items document to a long form grouped into several sections.

Form title. Enter the form's display title in cell A1 and leave an empty row below it. The title becomes the form's heading in the app, and the empty row tells Sheetward where the title ends and the fields begin.

Single-section forms — one set of fields, two ways to write them:

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

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

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

Grouped forms — a long form, split into sections. 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 are in CAPITALS. The capitals are the signal: they tell Sheetward (and the reader) that the row starts a group rather than labelling a value. A lower-case title stops the upload with an error.
• Each name is different. The app labels its cards and targets its translations by the section name, so a repeated banner is an error too.
• Still one record. Grouping is layout only — every field lands in the same record, so exports, imports, rules and formulas behave exactly as they did before you split the form up.
• Line items still stand alone. You may add a LINE ITEMS table below the groups, but only one per form.

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