How to transform any Spreadsheet into a Database!

Tips&Tricks
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#1

When you’re used to working with spreadsheets, the idea of switching to new software can be intimidating. However, there’s no need to feel stressed. Transitioning is simple when you know how.

In this tutorial, we will explore:

  • Exporting spreadsheet data as CSV, XML or JSON
  • Creating a workspace for your project
  • Three ways of importing data into your workspace
    • Create a new table from a CSV/XML/JSON file
    • Add new records from a CSV/XML/JSON file into an existing table
  • Inviting team collaborators to workspace
  • Making data available to viewers publicly

Convert any spreadsheet into a powerful database: How to transform any Spreadsheet into a Database! // Baserow.

1 Like
#2

The desire to merge the UI of a spreadsheet with some of the capabilities of a database is honestly what drew me to Baserow in the first place.

However, and this might be going off on a bit of a tangent, the lack of bog-standard spreadsheet convenience features in Baserow has been a source of constant end-user pain for me.

Things like…

  • Being able to use shift+arrows (or shift+pgdn) to select ranges of cells
  • Being able to navigate downward /w arrows from a cell being edited without having to press enter first
  • Being able to quickly populate a column across a range of rows by dragging down a handle in the corner of a selected range
  • Being able to select an entire row or column with a single click on a header
  • Being able to select an entire table, or table region, using the keyboard (currently have to mouse-drag for this, which gets glitchy and annoying if any scrolling is required)
  • Having more flexible number formatting
  • Having more flexible filtering capabilities
  • Actually being able to apply a formula to a range of rows
  • And I could go on and on

The reason I continue to put up with this, is because I do still find the database linking features to be genuinely useful to me, as well as the API for some of the things I’m actually doing with the data in the tables.

I have created feature requests for a few of these, but just do a side-by-side with any old spreadsheet and you could easily cough up a list a mile long.

Introduce Yourself: New Member Monday [November]
#3

Hello @dkonigs, thanks for sharing your pain points! After releasing 1.13, we will have feature planning where we will be deciding on what are the next development milestones for Baserow. I’ll get your feedback discussed on that call as providing a smooth user experience for people who switched from spreadsheet-like tools to Baserow is an important topic.

And feel free to share all the feature ideas you have. A big part of the currently available features was suggested by the community :fist_right: :fist_left: