How to Display Excel File in WordPress

This tutorial will walk you through the process of exporting an Excel file to WordPress. The resulting blog post will then be converted to a downloadable PDF using Calendars by HootSuite. You will learn how to integrate an Excel file into your WordPress posts, and utilize a variety of tools to make this process easier and more efficient. Let’s get started !

The Importance Of Backups

We all know the importance of regular backups. It is essential to ensure that you have copies of your critical data stored somewhere else, in case your computer crashes or is stolen. There are a variety of cloud-based services that you can use to create backups, either automatically or on demand.

Unfortunately, backing up your WordPress site isn’t as easy as copying files to an external device. If you use the built-in WordPress dashboard to perform your backups, you will only save the content of the current post to your archive. Although this may be sufficient for some users, it doesn’t provide a complete backup.

Finding The Perfect Image Size

An image’s dimensions directly impact how it will look when displayed. Take a look at the screenshot below:

The width of the image will determine the width of the column it is going to span. The height will determine the height of the row it is placed in. If the dimensions of the image are too big or too small, the text in the adjoining cells will either be cut off or overlap the image.

You want to find the perfect size for your images. Sometimes this can be tricky, especially if you don’t have the original image files. Luckily, there are tools like Canva that can help you figure out the perfect dimensions of any given image.

Deciding What To Backup

There are a variety of things you might want to back up on your WordPress site. Database backups are one of the most critical aspects to consider, as they can help you restore your site to it’s previous state if necessary. Additionally, you might want to consider backing up the following:

• Site configuration (including the WordPress Dashboard)
• Site content (including posts, pages, and images)
• Backup of critical data (financials, legal documents […])
• SSL certificates
• Contact details (phone, email, physical addresses)

The list above should give you a good idea of what to back up on your WordPress site. Remember to test your backups regularly on a development version of your site. This will help you identify any issues before they become problems.

Importing The Backup Into WordPress

The first thing you should do after backing up your site is import the files into WordPress. This is a straightforward process that you can accomplish by logging into your dashboard and selecting the Tools option from the top menu.

Click on the Import button to bring up the WordPress Importer. Select the local folder containing the backup files and click on the Continue button.

The importer will now scan your local machine for any changes and then make the appropriate adjustments to the WordPress database. Once complete, click on the Update button to start using the new content.

Integrating An Excel File Into A WordPress Post

Now that your WordPress site is backed up and updated, you can start to integrate the Excel file into your posts. For this tutorial, we will be using the free OpenTo plugin to connect to our Excel file. This plugin simplifies the process of connecting to a Microsoft Excel file and displaying its contents within a WordPress post or page.

To begin, log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Plugins option. Click on the Add New button to bring up the plugins search bar. Type “opento” in the search bar and hit the Enter key to search for the plugin.

Once found, click on the Install button to install the plugin.

Once installed, click on the OpenTo menu item from the WordPress toolbar to access its functionality.

Click on the Import button to open up the Excel file we downloaded from HootSuite. From here, you can upload a new Excel file or select one from your existing files.

If you click on the dropdown menu next to the Excel logo, you can select which columns you want to see in the new post. You should only select the Columns you need to see for the post’s content. For example, if you only want to see the subject lines and the first paragraph of the text in the article, you would only want to select these columns.

Next, you can control how the data is displayed. To do this, click on the Options tab.

This opens up the Preferences window, where you can change how the data is formatted. You can change the background color, the font style, and much more.

Most importantly, you can change the images used in the post. For this example, let’s suppose you have a post with a list of products. Instead of having a small image next to each product, you can use the OpenTo plugin to swap out those images for a larger version located on your device. This may be more convenient for your readers.

To change the featured image for our post, click on the Edit Post button.

This will open up the Edit Post screen, where you can make changes to the content and the formatting of the post. When you are done, click on the update button at the top to save your changes.

Generating A Table Of Content

Sometimes it’s easier to just list out the content in a table rather than try to explain it in text. For example, let’s say you have a blog post with a product list as described above. Instead of trying to fit all that information into a single article, you can use the Table Of Contents plugin to generate a table of contents for the post. This is particularly handy if your article is long and has multiple sections.

To use this plugin, navigate to the Plugins option in your WordPress dashboard.

Click on the Add New button to bring up the plugins search bar and type “tableofcontents” in the search bar.

Once found, click on the Install button to install the plugin.

Once installed, click on the Table Of Contents menu option on your WordPress toolbar to access the functionality.

You will now see a preview of your article with the table of contents included. If you click on the preview, you can click on the links to navigate to the various sections of the document. You can then click on the Read More link at the bottom to read the full article.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the Table Of Contents plugin will populate the contents of the document with a table of contents, as shown.

Each section of the article is assigned a unique color. If you click on any of the table of contents entries, the corresponding section will be displayed in a small box at the bottom of the article.

Converting Your WordPress Post To A PDF

One of the things you might want to do after writing a blog post is create a PDF copy of it. Although you could manually copy and paste the content into a PDF document, doing so would be time-consuming and error-prone. Luckily, there are tools like Calendars by HootSuite that can automate this process for you.

To begin, log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Tools option. Click on the PDF icon to begin the process.

This will open up the WordPress PDF Export options. From here, you can choose what to export and how to export it. You will want to choose the “Set publication date and titles” option to ensure you always have the most recent version of your post.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, this tutorial helped you learn a little bit about how to integrate an Excel file into your WordPress posts. By taking the time to back up your site and import the files, you make sure that your content is safe and accessible no matter what. This ensures you can always return to your site’s previous state if necessary. Additionally, you can use tools like OpenTo and Table Of Contents to make the process of integrating Excel files into your posts easier.