When our more automated options don't suit your needs, learn about copying and pasting tables into Coda.
Tables are one of the most useful, powerful Coda building blocks. Maybe you already have a table of data in another tool, and you want to transfer it over to Coda. We have lots of pre-built options for this, including our CSV importer, Notion importer, and more. But if none of those options work for you, there’s always the old standby: copy and paste. And to help you out, Coda understands the structure of your data and automatically detects column headers, column widths, data types, and more.
Within this article, you’ll find...
Copy your existing data
First, prepare your data. If a table has cells mixed in that aren't part of the data - like explanations, comments, or group labels - it's best to move these out before copying. If the spreadsheet has more than one table, copy each table one at a time.
If you’re starting from a spreadsheet, simply select the specific table of data you want to import, copy it, and paste into Coda.
If you're starting from another app, see if it supports exporting to a spreadsheet format, then copy from the spreadsheet export before pasting into Coda. You'll also see a few import helpers in the Insert menu under Import if you scroll to the bottom of the list of Packs. Or just type /import into the canvas to scroll through options.
Paste and polish your data in Coda
In most cases, your data pastes as you would expect. In a few cases though, some simple steps before or after pasting can ensure your data comes in smoothly.
Coda will automatically try to detect column headers from your original table. But if it can't do so, the headers may be in one of the first rows of the table. To set up headers, select that row, right-click, and choose Use as column headers.
Coda will also do its best to automatically detect the type of data within each column, and set column types accordingly. But if there are any errors, you can manually change the format for any column by clicking the format icon at the left of the column label. And, if you don't want to keep the formats that were set automatically, just undo once after paste and the columns will revert to the default text format that you can customize as you see fit.
Finally, if your source data had formulas, the value of the formula will be pasted into Coda. If you want to change a column to be a formula in Coda, click the column dropdown and choose Add column formula. That way your formula will automatically apply to every new addition in that column.