Brett Thomas


## New Feature: Dropdown support and Multi-Column filling

In [my last update](/blog/automatic_spreadsheet_fills), I introduced our in-place spreadsheet filling feature: once we've completed filling out your spreadsheet, you can export it back to its original format. This was the first significant project I undertook here at Wolfia.

To make this work, I initially constrained our system to identify what I called the "main answer field." Most security questionnaire spreadsheets have one question per row, with a column for free-form text answers. Previously, we had been exporting this as a new spreadsheet with just the question in one column and the answer in another.

This approach required more rigorous parsing of these sheets; we needed to capture the internal structure better to know where the answers should go when re-exporting them.

Spreadsheets often contain other types of columns. Dropdowns are common, such as a field with "Yes," "No," and "N/A" options, often accompanied by an "explanation" field for additional details. Sometimes there are separate columns for technical specifics, like key sizes, distinct from whether or not you encrypt data.

![Automatic In-Place Spreadsheet Filling](/images/blog/posts-images/secondary_columns_and_dropdowns.png)

After a busy summer filled with various projects, I'm excited to announce that we've revisited this feature over the past week. We've made significant improvements:

1. We now correctly recognize dropdowns and constrain our output to the available choices.
2. We're filling in secondary text answers as well (e.g., "comments" or "explanations" columns).
3. We properly handle cases where text fields and dropdowns are interleaved from row to row within the same column.

One particularly noteworthy enhancement is our handling of partially completed sheets. If you upload a sheet with some answers already filled in, we'll not only preserve your original work but also use it to inform our automated responses. For instance, if you have a sheet with text answers you've already provided and a "Compliant?" column with a "Yes/No" dropdown, we'll use your existing answers to select the appropriate dropdown option.

We hope you'll find this new functionality useful in making the often Sisyphean task of filling out security questionnaires at least a little less arduous. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions for further improvements.

Our latest update brings smarter automation to complex spreadsheets, including support for dropdowns and multiple columns

Expanding automated spreadsheet filling: Dropdowns

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