I’m a Microsoft Excel Junkie. I’d love to be able to view/edit spreadsheets or simple tables directly in backpack. Any chance this will ever be implemented?

God I hope not :)

You can create simple tables using the | character, although if I try to do an example here it will convert it into a table!

Check the reference here: http://hobix.com/textile/#tables

Google spreadsheets can now be embedded in any web page. That may give you what you need.

It doesn’t have to be Google. I’ve been embedding some Edit Grid spreadsheets in my pages for quite a while.

But it’s a PITA since I have to first make those spreadshees public and then secure them w/ a password.

I think it would be a good move if 37s teamed up with some company that makes good online spreadsheets.

kchrist,

how do you embed a google spreadsheet into backpack? When you do that don’t you have to make the spreadsheet public?

Yes. When you “Publish” your Google Doc, you can get an HTML snippet (an iframe) to embed it into any other page (under “more publishing options” or something like that). If you disable publishing of the document, it will no longer be accessible via the embed code.

I also embed EditGrid spreadsheets in my Backpack pages—it works great, and the spreadsheets don’t have to be public. EditGrid is seriously awesome, one of the best web apps out there IMO.

Still having problems embedding Google spreadsheet into backpack. Do I put the html snippet in a note in backpack? Do I have to include something around the snippet? Any help is appreciated!

Ok I found this link which explained it perfectly.
http://forum.37signals.com/basecamp/forums/4/topics/145

The question I now have is when you publish the google spreadsheet can’t anyone see it? Or would they have to know the exact URL to get at it?

mamster, could you please explain how you managed to embed EditGrid spreadsheets without making them public? And does this work without having to enter a password every time the Backpack page loads?

I couldn’t find a way to do that, and it would be really helpful.

mamster,

Would love to hear how you do that. Given what I read my google spreadsheet has to be public to have it in backpack. Please correct me if I am wrong on this one.

Here is the answer for embeding form editgrid and password protecting.
http://forum.editgrid.com/viewtopic.php?pid=4867#p4867

They also have a excel plugin to synch from excel to editgrid. I am moving everything over form google docs this weekend.

Thanks, Mindquest, and sorry I didn’t answer sooner. And in case it isn’t clear from that thread, you do need to have logged into EditGrid with a cookie, otherwise you will be prompted for your password every time. That is, anyone using your computer would be able to edit your spreadsheet, but it’s not public to the whole internet.

Actually, now I see that the method described embeds the password in the HTML. That’s fine, but it’s not the way I do it. From the spreadsheet I want to embed, I just go File|Properties, switch to the Post to Blog tab, and follow the instructions there. It warns:

Reminder: Your spreadsheet is not public-readable.
Others will not be able to view your spreadsheet unless you set it to be readable by the public.

Which in most cases is exactly what I want.