Using Formatter Output Across Steps

Adding Formatter to a Zap is straightforward. What often trips up beginners is realizing that you must explicitly map the formatted output in downstream steps. If you do not, those steps will keep using the original data, and the Formatter will have no effect.

The Starting Point

You are working with a Zap that has a simple two-step structure:

# Trigger: Gmail — New Email
     ↓
# Action: Google Sheets — Create Spreadsheet Row

The spreadsheet captures:

• Email sender address;
• Email body.

Add a Formatter step that transforms the sender's email to uppercase before it reaches the spreadsheet.

The Critical Step

This is where many people get stuck. If you publish and run the Zap now, nothing will change in your spreadsheet, because the Google Sheets action is still pulling data directly from the Gmail trigger. The Formatter step runs, transforms the data, and then nothing actually uses its output.

# Gmail Trigger
    ↓
# Formatter (transforms email to uppercase)
    ↓
# Google Sheets (still pointing to Gmail, ignoring Formatter)

The formatted data exists, but it's sitting unused between the steps.

To fix this, you must reconfigure any step that should use the formatted data:

• Open the Google Sheets action;
• Go to Configure;
• Find the field currently using the original Gmail data (From Email);
• Delete the existing mapping;
• Click + to add new data.

You will now see two available data sources:

• Gmail trigger data (original);
• Formatter output (transformed).

Select the Formatter output — the uppercase email.

Testing the Complete Flow

After saving and publishing the updated Zap, trigger a test run by sending an email to the connected Gmail account. Then check the Google Sheet to confirm the result, the sender’s email address should now appear in all capitals, for example, before Formatter it was learn@send.zapier.com, and after Formatter it becomes LEARN@SEND.ZAPIER.COM, confirming the transformation works end to end.

Multiple Formatters in Sequence

You can chain multiple Formatter steps when data needs several transformations:

# Gmail Trigger
    ↓
# Formatter 1: Trim Whitespace
    ↓
# Formatter 2: Lowercase
    ↓
# Formatter 3: Extract Domain
    ↓
# Google Sheets (using Formatter 3 output)

Each Formatter step produces output that subsequent steps (including other Formatters) can access.