EditGrid on Confluence

Usage

Getting Started

To create a new spreadsheet, click on the "Add Spreadsheet" link. The system will then ask you to input a name for the new spreadsheet, input the name in the text field and click "Save and edit spreadsheet", the spreadsheet is created and you can start editing the spreadsheet right away.

EditGrid supports real-time update, i.e. the system saves your changes on the spreadsheet automatically, and other users will see all the changes at real-time, too. However, the changes will not be posted to your Confluence page until you click on the [Save] button. If you have made changes but do not want to reflect the changes onto your Confluence page, click on the [Quit] button (note that changes will still be saved in the spreadsheet).

You could also configure the look and feel of the spreadsheet displaying on the Confluence page. Simply click on the [Configure] button while you are viewing the spreadsheet, configure settings and click on the [Submit] button. Changes will be stored and reflected on the Confluence page immediately.

Note: Since EditGrid supports real-time collaboration, more than one person could be working on the same spreadsheet at the same time. So for example, Amy and James are both working on the same spreadsheet at the same time, Amy made some changes but decided not to post it on the Confluence page so she clicked [Quit]. At the same time, James made some changes on the same spreadsheet and decided he wants to post it on the Confluence page so he clicked [Save]. Because Amy's changes has immediately been stored on the spreadsheet alongside James' changes, both changes from Amy and James will now be posted on the Confluence page, all because James clicked [Save] after Amy's changes has been done.

Adding a Spreadsheet

There are two ways to add a spreadsheet onto a Confluence page. The first way is to click on the "Add Spreadsheet" link. This will then bring you to a new screen where you are asked to key in the following information for the new spreadsheet:

• Source of the spreadsheet. Choose any one of the following options:
  • Import an Excel Spreadsheet - attach an existing MS Excel spreadsheet onto your Confluence page. Pick the file using the [Browse...] button.
  • Start from a new, blank spreadsheet. Give it a name in the textbox under "Start a new spreadsheet, give it a name". NB: The extension ".xls" will be automatically appended if it is omitted. So if you name your new spreadsheet "My new spreadsheet", it will be referred to as "My new spreadsheet.xls" in Confluence from this point onwards.
• Display size of the spreadsheet. Specify how much space on your Confluence page would you would like to assign to the EditGrid Frame. You will be able to change it later on using the [Configure] button.
• Insertion point of the new spreadsheet. Specify where would you like to place the EditGrid Frame on the Confluence page. You will be able to change it later on by editing the Confluence page.

Click [Create and edit spreadsheet] or [Create spreadsheet] after completing the above. This will then create an {editgrid} macro on your Confluence page at the designated insertion point. You will now be able to edit the spreadsheet using the [Edit] button.

The second way to add a spreadsheet is to directly key in an {editgrid} macro on the Confluence page's Wiki Markup. See the section The EditGrid Macro below.

The EditGrid Frame

Once you have added a spreadsheet to your Confluence page, you'll see a frame added to and displayed on your Confluence page. The EditGrid Frame has two modes: view mode and edit mode.

View Mode

The following is an illustration of the view mode (default):

Here is an overview of the functions available in view mode:

• Export button: export the latest version of the spreadsheet attachment as a file.
• Name: name of the spreadsheet given at the time of adding it to the Confluence page, or interpreted from an existing file.
• Configure: configure the settings of the EditGrid Frame. See more below.
• Edit: enter edit mode.
• Print: export the latest version of the spreadsheet attachment into a printer-friendly format in a new browser window or tab for your easy printing.
• Static view: a static view of the latest version of the spreadsheet attachment.
• Sheet navigation: navigate across multiple sheets. Use the scroll buttons at the leftmost and rightmost to scroll if there are too many sheets to display.

Edit Mode

Once you've clicked on the [Edit] button, you'll enter edit mode, which looks like this:

Here is an overview of the functions available in edit mode:

• Export button: export the latest version of the spreadsheet attachment as a file. NB: unsaved changes in the current editing session are not exported.
• Name: name of the spreadsheet given at the time of adding it to the Confluence page, or interpreted from an existing file.
• Save: save all changes in the current editing session to a new revision of the spreadsheet attachment.
• Quit: quit the current editing session and ignore all unsaved changes. IMPORTANT: the unsaved changes are ignored but not abandoned immediately. Other Confluence users may, if they have the right permission to the Confluence page, continue your editing session and elect to save the editing session anyway.
• Menu bar: the EditGrid menu bar. See more below.
• Tool bar: the EditGrid tool bar. See more below.
• Grid area: the live spreadsheet which allows you to edit. Editing sessions have real-time update ("RTU") enabled, which means that if another Confluence user, who has the right permission, is also in edit mode of the same spreadsheet, you'll be able to see all changes made by that user in real-time on your live spreadsheet, and vice versa.
• Status bar: the EditGrid status bar, which shows the current status of the editing session. Pay attention to the status LEDs at the leftmost of the status bar, since they indicate whether your last changes have been submitted to the server successfully. The LEDs have the following status available:
  • Green: all fine.
  • Blue and amber: changes are being submitted to/received from the server. NB: the "Saving..." status merely indicates that the changes are being "saved" to the editing session on server; it does not indicate that the changes are being saved to the spreadsheet attachment. To save your changes in the current editing session to the spreadsheet attachment, use the [Save] button at the top-right corner of the EditGrid Frame.
  • Amber: changes are being processed in server. NB: you may lose your changes if you quit your editing session or the browser while the status LED is still in amber.
  • Red: some changes have failed.

Configuring the EditGrid Frame

The following parameters are available for you to configure the display of the EditGrid Frame:

• Show grid lines: whether to show the spreadsheet's grid lines or not in view mode.
  Wiki Text parameter: gridline=0|1(default)
• Show row header: whether to show the spreadsheet's row header or not in view mode.
  Wiki Text parameter: rowheader=0(default)|1
• Show column header: whether to show the spreadsheet's column header or not in view mode.
  Wiki Text parameter: colheader=0(default)|1
• Enable sorting by column: here you can enable sorting on a by-column basis in view mode.
  Wiki Text parameter: sort=0(default)|1
• Enable filtering: here you can enable auto filter in view mode.
  Wiki Text parameter: filter=0(default)|1
• Show charts and images: whether to show charts and images or not in view mode.
  Wiki Text parameter: sheetobject=0|1(default)
• width: width of the EditGrid Frame when displayed on the present Confluence page. Support either absolute measurement (in pixels) or proportional measurement (in %).
  Wiki Text parameter: width=NNNpx|MM%
• height: width of the EditGrid Frame when displayed on the present Confluence page. Support either absolute measurement (in pixels) or proportional measurement (in %).
  Wiki Text parameter: height=NNNpx|MM%

The EditGrid Macro

The EditGrid Frame is displayed on your Confluence page because of the placement of the {editgrid} macro at the designated insertion point. The {editgrid} macro looks like this in Wiki Markup:

{editgrid:filename=expense.xls}

You can place it anywhere on the Confluence page as you please. You can even add a new spreadsheet to the page by inserting the {editgrid} macro anywhere on the page.

The {editgrid} macro accepts configuration parameters; these are outlined in the Configuring the EditGrid Frame section above. For example, the following Wiki Markup:

{editgrid:filename=expense.xls|width=100%|height=300px|filter=1}

would place on the Confluence page an EditGrid Frame opening the attachment expense.xls, of width 100% and height 300 pixels, with auto filter enabled in view mode.

NB: the filename parameter is mandatory and must be suffixed by the file extension ".xls". If the attachment is not found on the present Confluence page, it will be automatically created.

The EditGrid User Interface

EditGrid has an Microsoft Excel™ like interface to ease your pain to learn how to use a new application:

For seasoned Excel users, keyboard shortcuts work here as well. Try Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and 50 other common keyboard shortcuts.

Standard Spreadsheet Features

Cut-and-paste, sorting, charts, auto-fill, cell border, number formatting, cell formatting, find and replace, undo, redo, freeze pane, text overflow, auto-fit row/column size, word warp, cell comments, 500+ functions ... You name it, EditGrid has it.

Support

Your feedback is paramount to us to improve EditGrid on Confluence.

• To report issues or bugs found in EditGrid on Confluence, please report an issue at JIRA.
• For general usage help, please visit EditGrid License documentation centre.
• For community support, please visit the EditGrid Forum > Confluence Forum. The EditGrid Team endeavours to reply to all unanswered posts within one business day.

Licensing

EditGrid on Confluence, as available presently on Confluence Hosted and Confluence Enterprise Hosting, runs on the version 2.0 series of the EditGrid Confluence Plugin. No installation is required for Confluence Hosted and Confluence Enterprise Hosting customers - the plugin is by default enabled by Atlassian there.

EditGrid Confluence Plugin supports multiple modes of deployment at your option. For Confluence licensing customers, EditGrid Confluence Plugin is available in two versions:

• Standalone Version - shipped with a trimmed-down version of the EditGrid Server tailored for Confluence customers. Supports Ubuntu Linux 6.06 (Server Edition), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, CentOS 5.1, or any compatible virtual machine.
• Hosted Version - connects to the EditGrid Server hosted on our infrastructure at editgrid.com. The spreadsheets are still stored on your intranet (as attachments to Confluence pages), but will be sent to and hosted at editgrid.com temporarily while being edited or displayed.

Click here for more details.