I’m curious to know the purpose of this spreadsheet and why you want to maintain it in a WP page…..there are far more elegant ways to display tabular data that long ago replaced the ‘table’ structure.
Also, will the data that is currently in your spreadsheet ever get updated? And if so, how?
And, you mention 400 cells with comments, but how many lines of data (how many rows and how many columns)?
If the idea is to make a spreadsheet available to a limited set of users (for example, employees) you might consider just using Google Sheets, and add your users to be able to view/edit/manage as needed.
If the intention is to make tabular data available to an unlimited number of site visitors, it might be worth the effort to rethink how the data is entered and displayed, for example using custom post types and custom metadata.
You can view a simplified version here, but the table also now has the columns grouped into 3 sections and has an additional header row that spans those columns.
The table will be viewed on a site that is already built in WP. The data will get updated occasionally, but not very frequently. The table will have 30-40 rows and 14 columns, and should be available for viewing to anyone who visits the site.
I have had someone else suggest maybe looking into embedding the Excel workbook online using OneDrive (which I’ve yet to look into).
Do you know if something like this is achievable using custom post types and custom metadata? Could you point me towards any examples?
Thanks!
Thanks for that link, I now understand better what you’re doing.
SO yes this would be achievable using CPTs and custom metadata, and if you go that route you have two options – add code, or use plugins like Types and Views.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/types/
Types lets you easily setup CPTs and associated custom meta fields.
Views however, which simplifies creating templates to *display* your CPT & data is not free. Note that we are not supposed to link to commercial plugins in this support forum, but since Views is from the same developers you can find the link to it on Types FAQs tab when you click on the link above.
OR you could keep it even simpler and use Google Sheets for the tables and data, and embed it into your WP site using this plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/inline-google-spreadsheet-viewer/
The advantage to the second route is that you can allow certain people to have edit permissions on the spreadsheet so you can delegate the task of keeping it updated to someone else if you want to, and don’t have to give them access to your WP installation.
Thanks for the suggestions Trisha.
I don’t understand how the cpt’s could be set up and connect to a table. Samples I was finding showed how it would function in the dashboard, but not what the finished data would look like on the page. Have you seen any examples?
Google Sheets may potentially be a viable solution, but the comment cells and the freezing of multiple header rows only works when you have Sheets open, and not on the WP page.
Still learning and searching…
Just in case anyone is interested:
I ended up using the Data Tables by Supsystic plugin for items #1 & #4.
I utilized Simple Tooltip plugin to create pop-up tooltips for what used to be in the Excel comment fields.
I’m still looking for a solution to #3, but I am marking this as ‘resolved’.
Thanks.
