Why am I asked to reimport when trying to refresh data from Smartsheet?

Overview

When trying to refresh a timeline imported from Smartsheet, you may get a message asking you to reimport your data first.

reimport-smartsheet-refresh-data-messageThis happens when your timeline was imported using an older version of Office Timeline, which didn’t have the ability to refresh data from Smartsheet yet. In such situations, there are no references the add-in can rely on to automatically update your timeline, and that’s why you need to reimport your Smartsheet data first to activate refreshing.

Expert Edition trick to keep your customizations

If you’ve made all sorts of layout and styling choices that you don't want to lose when reimporting your data from Smartsheet, you can use custom templates to save your customizations.

  1. First save your old timeline as a custom template by clicking Templates -> Save Current Timeline as Template on the Office Timeline ribbon.

    save-current-timeline-as-template
  2. Then reimport your Smartsheet data straight into the custom template created.

    import-into-custom-template-smarsheet

This will allow you to keep the original  customization on your old timeline, while also activating Refresh Data, which helps you update your slide effortlessly whenever your Smartsheet plan changes.