I’m looking for a way to set a date when an action occurs, for instance, ticking a checkbox. Using Now( ) or Today ( ) update on a regular basis depending on the precision, but how can I set a static date when an action occurs?
In my case, I’m trying to have a “Start Date” set when I check an “In Progress” box.
I appreciate any help!
Max
Hey there!
Your best bet in that exact situation is to set a “Row-Changed” automation that watches the specific checkbox column
Then, have the action of the automation update a second column (maybe titled checkbox modified) to be Now(“minute”)
Just know that automations are run on Codas server. This means every time you check that checkbox, a little message is sent over to Coda that says “please update a column in my doc!”
Then a little Coda robot called the “Automation Bot” must come back to your doc and make the actual change.
Because of this journey that must take place, row-changed automations take anywhere from 3-20 seconds depending on how fast your little robot messenger is.
Therefore, if you set your Now() formula without the “minute” option as I have above it will record the change of your row incorrectly (if you care about actual seconds)
That makes sense, thank you! I’m really looking at a precision of days or maybe hours here so unless my internet is really struggling, I think a little lag should be fine 
Great! Then probably go for:
Both should work fine!
That will only log last modified time as opposed to a running record of all modified times though. I don’t think that’s what you need but just wanted to throw that call out in case others come across this!
There are ways to log every modified time, but it’s a bit more complex. Feel free to ask further if need be!
Awesome, thanks Scott!
It may come to the more complex option, but I’m not there yet so I’ll circle back to that.
Side note, how do I mark a topic as solved?
Hey @Max_Cheney ! You can close to topic from the settings section of this Community post or mark the solution from the three-dot menu on the comment providing the solution as shown here:
@Shaina_Torgerson Interesting, I don’t seem to get that menu option 
I think your account on the Community is still a bit to young to mark a topic as solved 
…
It should appear in the next few days 
Much appreciated! Shouldn’t be long at this rate 
Hmm … Maybe you can only select a post as a solution in the topics you create on the Community (as opposed to selecting a post as a solution in someone else’s topic) 
At least that would make sense …
Ah thanks for the heads up @Pch and sorry for the oversight @Max_Cheney. This may only be available for certain roles we need to set on our end in the Community. Would you like me to close this conversation, Max?
It looks like it’s been marked as solved. I’m not sure what the community norm is, but leave it open or close it, doesn’t matter to me 
Sounds great @Max_Cheney ! I’ll go ahead and close it 
