Workflow - send email on single field change?

Question

My question is similar to this post.

I just want my workflow to send an email when the "project lead" field changes. I currently have a workflow that fires once when the item is created, simply waiting for the field to contain a value, then sending the email.

How in the world can i get this to work? I've tried creating workflow variables, but haven't had any success. Do I need multiple workflows? An additional column in my list? that seems unnecessary.

This should just be one simple workflow that runs whenever an item is created or changed - monitoring the "project lead".

I can't get the logic straight. pretty frustrating. any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

What I would do in this situation is create an additional field for project lead that is hidden from the forms. On item creation, a workflow populates this field with the value of the project lead.

Then you create an on change workflow that compares the project lead field with the hidden field. If they are the same, then you know a different field was updated and you simply end the workflow. If they are different, then you know this field was updated. You then email the user and then update the hidden field to the new value.

If the project lead is edited again, the workflow will refire and email the user.