Help:Copy Spreadsheets into the Wiki

Some contributors wish to import information from existing spreadsheets. This is especially helpful when trying to import tables, or keep current formatting from pre-existing or spreadsheets.

How to copy a spreadsheet table into the Wiki
1. Using your Internet browser, navigate to the Excel Converter website located at http://people.fas.harvard.edu/~sdouglas/table.cgi.

2. (On your computer:) Open the spreadsheet or Excel file you wish to copy to the FamilySearch Wiki.

3. Select all of the contents in the spreadsheet by left-clicking in the upper left-hand corner of the table you want to copy, and while holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse until the text or table you wish to copy is entirely highlighted.

4. Release the left mouse button, and without clicking, position your cursor over the highlighted area. Now right-click on the highlighted area, and click "Copy" (or, while the mouse is positioned over the highlighted area, copy the highlighted text by holding down the "Ctrl" key while tapping the "C" key once.)

5. Re-open the Excel Converter website, and paste the Excel table or spreadsheet into the window provided on the Excel Converter website. Click "Submit Query."



6. After clicking "Submit Query, the heading "Result" will appear below the "Submit Query" button (see image below), followed by Wiki text. Copy the Wiki text by holding down the "Ctrl" key while tapping the "A" key once, and then holding down the "Ctrl" key again while tapping the "C" key once. [NOTE: this will copy the word "Result" and "Format Heading," but these can be deleted later.] (Or, left-click and drag over all of the text, and then, with the cursor positioned over the highlighted text, hold down the "Ctrl" key while tapping the "C" key once.)



7. (Online at Wiki.FamilySearch.org:) Open the page in which you wish to import the document or create a new page, and open the edit box by clicking on the "Edit" option for that page or article. This will open the editing window.

8. At the top of the editing window is a tan colored bar containing several icons (see below):

9. Click on the "Wikitext" button on the editor toolbar, in the lefthand corner of the toolbar (see below):                                                       [Note: You do not need to do this if you have the rich text editor disabled in your preferences].

10. In the Wikitext editing window, paste the copied text in the location where you want the text or table to appear by placing your cursor in the appropriate location in the body of the text, and left clicking with your mouse to indicate where the text or table should appear. Then, while holding down the "Ctrl" button on the keyboard, tap the "V" key on the keyboard. (See the "Special Instructions" section below for additional help regarding tables.) 11. After pasting the text into the editing window, scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and click Save Page. The formatted text and/or tables will appear on the Wiki page.

Adding Borders to the Table
To add borders to the table:

1. Open the editing window 

2. Right click on the table

3. Select "Table Properties." This will open the Table Properties window.

4. Add a number in the "Border size" box

5. Click "OK"

6. Scroll down below the editing window and click "Save page."

Special Instructions
To format a table after pasting the text:


 * 1) Click edit to edit the page.
 * 2) Click on "Wikitext" in the lefthand corner of the editor toolbar.
 * 3) Search the document for each occurance of this line: {| class="prettytable" The line will appear once for each table that is in the document. This will widen the table and add a border.
 * 4) Change the line to read as follows: {| width="75%" border="1" Note: You can change the percentage value for "width" to make your table wider or narrower.