Import an Excel file with pictures and much more

Tips and tricks
22
min read

RowShare tables can be created from our catalog, from a blank page or by importing Excel spreadsheets.

If you import an Excel file, you will get a RowShare table for each tab of your Excel file. Your Excel tabs should only contain well formatted tables, no additional information around your table. Merged cells are not supported either.

By default, after an import, all your columns will be Text columns in RowShare. It means you will not benefit of RowShare data type features such as date validator, checkboxes, drop down lists… And if your Excel file contains pictures, they will be dropped by the import process.

Typically, you would go through each column of the table and specify the type of data it contains. However, in some cases, such as when you're importing numerous similar files or if they contain images, it might be more useful to automate the process.

Advanced import process

This is useful if you want the imported table to have the right type of columns created and optionally import pictures as well.

Start from your clean existing Excel file and follow these steps:

  • Add a new tab, name it “RowShare_metadata”. (Capitalization matters)
  • In this tab, create two columns named Name and Value
  • For each column of your Excel file that you want to specify instructions for, add in this new tab a row containing:
    • Name: the name of the column to treat specifically, followed by “:Type”,
    • Value: the data type that you want RowShare to use to import this column, amongst the following list:
      • Blob : pictures
      • Boolean: Booleans (True/False)
      • Number: Numbers
      • Date: Dates
      • DateTime: Date and Time
      • Time: Time (hour)
    • For example, to specify that the MyPicture column contains a picture, add this row to your RowShare_metadata tab

Select your newly created row(s), and name them after the tab that contains your data to be imported (Excel tab Formulas / Define Name):

That’s it, your table is ready to be imported into RowShare.

Create a new table, choose the first option “From an Excel File”, and you’re done!

Published on  
2018-02-26

From the blog

View all the posts
right arrow
A Wealth of New Features for RowShare's Fall Release
Our team is spoiling you for this 2024 back-to-school season. Here's a preview of the new features arriving this Monday, September 30th
News
Read article
right arrow
Welcome to the New RowShare Website!
As part of our ongoing commitment to improving your experience, we've given our online home a fresh look and feel. We understand that change can sometimes be a bit disorienting, so we wanted to take a moment to guide you through what's new and reassure you about what hasn't changed.
News
Read article
right arrow
Displaying Last Modification Time in Excel
Ever wondered how to insert dates in Excel, specifically to track the last modification date in your cells? Keeping track of the last modified date in Excel can simplify your work and help you stay organized. Imagine you maintain an employee directory—people get hired, transfer to different branches, and so on. You use Excel to centralize all this information, including hiring dates, positions, office locations, and more.
Excel
Read article
right arrow
How to insert attachments in Excel
Do you ever need to insert files into Excel to share more detailed information with your co-workers? Whether it's inserting PDFs or Word documents, it seems simple enough: just click on Insert, Text, Object, choose your file, and voilà! But then what? Your file ends up floating around your spreadsheet, not anchored to a specific cell. To sort or move it along with the rest of your data, what you really need is to place it within a single cell. So, how can you do this? Not to mention the exponentional size of your spreadsheet.
Excel
Read article
right arrow