Kill the Screenshot: A Smarter Way to Share Dynamic Charts in Confluence

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If you’re a spreadsheet power user working in Confluence, you’ve probably been here:

You’ve built a sophisticated financial model in Excel or Google Sheets. It has multi-tab logic, advanced formulas, beautiful charts, the works. But when it’s time to share that data with your team in Confluence?

You’re stuck doing this:

• Copy a giant table into a Confluence page

• Screenshot a chart (and pray it stays relevant)

• Add comments like “see tab 3 for breakdown”

• Leave yourself a reminder to re-update everything next week

And suddenly, your powerful spreadsheet becomes a clunky, static artifact.

That weekly report you spent hours fine-tuning? It’s now just a snapshot of a moment in time; disconnected from your source data and hard to maintain.

Spreadsheets are great for analysis. But terrible for storytelling.

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Why this is a real problem

Let’s be honest: Confluence wasn’t built for spreadsheets. But spreadsheets weren’t built for collaboration.

When you’re juggling multiple product lines, revenue streams, or budget categories, your reporting needs to be:

• Dynamic. Data should update as numbers change.

• Visual. Trends should be obvious at a glance.

• Relevant. The right insight in the right place.

Instead, you’re stuck in a vicious cycle:

1. Update your spreadsheet

2. Screenshot or re-export the chart

3. Paste it into Confluence

4. Repeat is all over again, every time the data changes

It’s inefficient, it’s error-prone. And it turns reporting into a maintenance nightmare.

When data is buried behind outdated screenshots and massive tables, it loses its impact. You're doing all the work, but the story gets lost in translation.

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🧠 The Fix: Excerpt Macro

Our new Excerpt Macro lets you insert a cell, a selected range or a chart from an existing Excel-like Table into any Confluence page — and it stays synced with the data.

Here’s how it works:

1. You are on any Confluence page

2. Insert the Excerpt Macro

3. Choose the Excel-like Table on your space (you can create one anywhere)

4. Select the chart you want to display

That’s it! Now, when the table is updated, your chart updates too.

No more screenshots!

No more “edit → switch tab → check chart → copy again” routine.

Just one place to view, share, and stay in sync.

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Example: My Multi-Product Digital Revenue Sheet

As a Product Manager in Ricksoft, I manage multiple products:

• CodeCrate

• GlyphPop

• SketchMate

• UiBolt

Each has income types like product sales, subscriptions, add-ons, and affiliate revenue. The spreadsheet has:

• A top-level summary

• Individual sheets for each product

• Detailed breakdowns of refunds, discounts, and revenue

All charts are built directly in the table.

Then, from my report page, I:

• Insert the Excerpt Chart Macro

• Select my Excel-like Table

• Pick charts like AddOnBreakdown, RevenueByProduct, or RefundsVsSales

💥 Boom — clean, visual, and accurate reporting with zero duplication.

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Why this matters for Excel power users

You don’t need to change how you work. You just stop duplicating effort.

Without Excerpt Chart Macro	With Excerpt Chart Macro
Screenshot charts repeatedly	Pull live charts directly
Manually sync across tabs/pages	One update updates all
Share full tables	Share just the insight
“See tab 4”	See what matters, right here

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TLDR

If you’re building powerful spreadsheets inside Confluence, your data already has value.
Now you can finally show it properly — no noise, no copy-paste loops.

The Excerpt Chart Macro gives you:

• The power of Excel-like logic

• The clarity of Confluence presentation

• And none of the maintenance mess

One chart. One macro. Endless clarity.

While this post focused on charts (because let’s be honest — they’re the easiest way to see impact), the Excerpt Macro isn’t limited to visualizations.

You can also use it to embed:

• 🔢 Specific cells — great for highlighting key metrics

• 📊 Data ranges — perfect for showing a table summary without overwhelming readers

Whether it’s a number, a table snippet, or a chart — it stays synced and always up to date.

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Supercharge your reporting

The Excerpt Macro is a new feature in Excel-like Tables for Confluence, built to transform the way teams share insights in Confluence.

👉 Try Excel-like Tables for Confluence on the Atlassian Marketplace

• Build dynamic reports

• Tell better stories with your data

• Make your Confluence pages more engaging and informative