Inserting (pasted) rows into a confluence table

[dylan_mark_saunders]

I have a number of rows of data (currently in Word - can just as easily be Excel/other) that need to be injected into existing table(s) created in pages in Confluence v5.5.2.

Is there a simple way to paste the rows in? Currently all the data is simply stuffed into the first cell 

Thanks

[dylan_mark_saunders · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the responses guys.

The end answer is that

• copy doesn't copy the content of a row such that is can be pasted (with format) directly into an Excel row
• similarly it's not possible to paste a row from an external source into an existing table as a new row - it pastes as a row inside the selected cell only 

The comments above are both great for working around. I particularly like the use of the bookmarklet to export to CSV, update and paste back in (so long as you haven't applied formatting - this includes bold, italics,   etc.

[Dennis Haller]

This procedure will work:

1. Create a table in Confluence with at least one blank row

2. Copy a list of values (one per line) into Google Sheets

3. Copy the rows from Google Sheets 

4. Paste the rows into the first cell of the Confluence table, and all the rows will populate one value per row

[John Ellison]

Tried it and it worked.

[Adrian Steiner]

I tried it with Excel. Works like a charm.

Thanks for the tip!

[Randy Harding]

Worked perfectly as described.

[Carl Dichter]

Doesn't work on Confluence cloud from Sheets or Google.

[Eric Sod]

Works for me. Surely @[deleted] can do better than this.

[Anthony Young]

Doesn't work for me.

[Sean Smith]

The need to hack around this issue is so incredibly bad I can't stand it. How can they so lack insight into the need for this key feature for content creators?

All of the workarounds listed here suck cheese. Most have bugs filed related to them:

But I'll had another one I found: Use the Markdown / Confluence wiki dialog to create the table: 

1. Use a tool to generate your content as a Markdown table
   https://www.tablesgenerator.com/markdown_tables
2. Enter the Markdown / Confluence wiki dialog
3. Select Confluence wiki (see bug related to using Markdown format below)
4. Paste in your content
5. Edit the header row to convert from Markdown to Confluence wiki. 

For #5, compare Markdown table header format to Confluence wiki-

Markdown:

| RNumPat      | AMSType        | LotPos |
|--------------|----------------|--------|
| @ ###        | ASI            | 0      |

|| RNumPat || AMSType || LotPos ||
| @ ### | ASI | 0 |

(Differences: Kill the dashed header separator row, double the pipes around header columns).

Note: Some content fails to convert. The value "@000@" (no quotes) results in an empty cell. (I need to file a bug about this,.....oh wait....I'd rather beat my head on a wall than figure out Atlassian bug reporting for Confluence.

Bugs related to Markdown dialog:

Bug

Bug

[Anthony Young]

Thanks Sean.  Lifesaver. 

If your columns are wide, be sure to make sure all text columns are aligned top left before pasting into tablesgenerator.com or you will end up with some strange markup output.

[Jaime S]

Hi, Mark.

Instead of creating the table and pasting the data, try simply copying the whole table (from Word or Excel) and paste it directly in Confluence, without creating a table there.

I'm not sure it will always work, but it works with some editors and some versions of Confluence.

I hope it was helpful.

Kind regards.

Jaime Kirch da Silveira.

[dylan_mark_saunders]

Thanks Jaime. Unfortunately that doesn't work as I receive additional rows from various sources and the table is part of larger table in Confluence.

I did try to copy/paste out the table to Excel/Word but it doesn't take enough formatting data to allow me to update externally and re-paste.

I think the short answer is that I'm committed to updating the table directly in Confluence (unless there's a way to export the source of the page as I can manipulate that quite easily with some concatenation in Excel?)

Cheers

Mark

[Davin Studer]

If you need to get the table into a format that Excel can work with so that you can muck with it and then put it back into Confluence I created a bookmarklet for taking HTML tables and generating a CSV from them that you can download to your system. Note: It doesn't work in IE due to data URI restrictions in IE. But is works in Chrome and Firefox. http://iamdav.in/2014/10/24/bookmarklet-creating-csv-html-table/

[dylan_mark_saunders]

@Davin Studer that's super-useful thanks. At the moment I can't use it straight off as it remove general formatting (such as header rows, red text for TODO: etc. - BUT - I'm guessing with some 'standard' I can export meta content (if not direct formatting) so this can be retained and 're-input' when pasted back into Confluence. Thanks Mark (feel free to promote this to an answer though...

[Davin Studer]

Well, theoretically it could be possible to create a bookmarklet that would actually generate an .xls or .xlsx file instead of a .csv file. But, that's a bit beyond my ability I think. :)

[Craig Brookhouse]

I've even had issues trying to copy confluence table rows to another confluence table with same number rows and colums.  In edit mode anyway.

If you are in edit mode and you copy multiple rows,columns and try to paste in another table, whether you select one cell, or select all the cells that the data would fit into, then paste , it does not copy correctly.  

However if you publish the new empty table as a single cell, and while not in edit mode, copy the data from the original table, then paste it in a single cell, it will then figure place the data in columns and rows as intended.  

[Drishti bhatia]

Go to the cell where you want a table

Add a new table in that table - Table > Select one cell > Insert table

Paste your table in that cell

Vola! Table inside a cell