How to publish from a spreadsheet to ScreenScape Digital Signage

This tip will allow you to publish from a spreadsheet directly to your ScreenScape display. Once set up, all you do is create a new row in an online spreadsheet; after a few minutes the row contents will automatically appear as text on your ScreenScape display.

The technique is especially useful when the data you want to display on your screen already lives in spreadsheet. It makes large or frequent “cut and pastes” of that data a simple exercise. Examples where this can be put to good use include customized daily reports, hourly headlines, status updates, Q&A’s, meeting room info, dynamic pricing information, leaderboards, etc.

An image showing the flow of how to publish from a spreadsheet

  1. Create free accounts on Google and Zapier.
  2. In Google Docs, create a new spreadsheet (aka Google Sheet).
  3. In Row 1 of your spreadsheet, add the following headers: Title, Content, Date, Source.
  4. In Zapier, use ‘Explore Zaps’ to find a Google Sheets to RSS zap called ‘Create an RSS feed from a Google Sheets spreadsheet‘. Follow the step by step instructions to connect your Google Sheet to the Zapier RSS feed, and turn it on.
  5. Create a new ScreenScape content item. Use any template that includes RSS, and enter the URL of your new Zapier RSS feed. (Tip: Set the RSS Sort critieria to ‘Newest first’ to see your latest entries.)
  6. To publish new RSS items, just add new rows to your spreadsheet with the data you want to publish. (Don’t delete the old rows – just add new ones.)

You may have to wait a few minutes for the automated zap to pick up new data, and for your ScreenScape feed to update from the RSS feed. If you want to hurry up this process, you can use your Zapier Dashboard to ‘Run’ the zap immediately, and/or ask your ScreenScape Support team about how you can increase the RSS update interval on your account.

Your new spreadsheet entries will now be published directly to your ScreenScape display.

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