Spreadsheet files really aren't designed for display purposes so Screenly's software does not support display of spreadsheet files. (XLS, XLSX, ODS) However, we do have a couple of workarounds to get your spreadsheet data into a format that Screenly can display.
Option 1: Screen Shot
With any kind of document, you always have the option of taking a screenshot of your desired content with a program like Snipping tool, and then saving the picture in a format that Screenly supports like JPG or PNG. Snipping Tool or Snip & Sketch are installed on Windows PCs by default and let you save anything on your screen as a JPG in just a few seconds. Search "Snip" on the task bar and it should come up. Add the app to your task bar if you use it frequently.
Option 2: Publish the sheet online
If you are using Excel Online you can click "share" and generate a view only link to the Spreadsheet. Then use that link address to create a URL asset in Screenly. This solution isn't ideal because only the first page of the first sheet in your workbook will be displayed, and it will include the Excel menu headers, but it will work if nothing else does.
Another option is to upload your Excel file into Google Sheets which has more sharing options and better compatibility with Screenly. Using sheets you can share a whole sheet, or just an individual table or chart. Sharing an individual table or chart usually looks better than sharing the full sheet. Google article on how to share charts and tables
Option 3: Print to PDF
Disclaimer: Screenly does not officially support the PDF format. PDF files that work today may stop working at any time. This workaround will not work for every spreadsheet, but it can be used as a last resort if the above options do not work.
- In Excel go to File>Print.
- The Print settings dialog will appear, depending on version your menu options may vary a bit. For each setting select:
- Print: Either Active Sheet, or Current Selection if you have highlighted a specific range of cells in the sheet.
- Paper Size: A4
- Page Orientation: normally Landscape, Portrait if your screen is vertical.
- Scaling: either Fit Sheet on one page or Fit all columns on one page
- Next click "Print" and a a print dialogue box will pop up. It may take a second to appear.
- In the print dialogue select "Save to PDF" and click "Save", name the file and save to your hard drive.
- Go to your Screenly account and upload your pdf on the Add Asset page.
- There is no confirmation after uploading. Once it is done just click back to the Assets page to see if your file is there. Processing the PDF can take a few seconds, but if the file does not appear within a short span then the system did not accept it. This is usually related to the formatting.
- If your PDF does not load check that you used the Scaling and Paper size options indicated above. These are the only settings that we have found to work with any consistency.
- Single page PDFs are more likely to work than multi page PDFs