Spreadsheet to Table
siulved54815 downloadsPaste cells from Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or LibreOffice Calc as a Markdown table with a real header row. Also converts CSV or tab-separated text, and copies a table back out for a spreadsheet.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates5
Table tools for Markdown notes: paste spreadsheet cells as a table, edit rows and columns from commands (so it works in source mode and on a phone), sort, align, and copy a table out as rich text, CSV or spreadsheet cells.
Copy cells in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or LibreOffice Calc, paste them into a note, and get a Markdown table, with the first row as its header.
Copied from the spreadsheet (a tab between cells):
Name Qty Price
Apple 3 1.20
Pear 10 0.5
Pasted into the note:
| Name | Qty | Price |
| ----- | --: | ----: |
| Apple | 3 | 1.20 |
| Pear | 10 | 0.5 |
Why not just paste?
Obsidian already turns a pasted spreadsheet selection into a table, but the table it makes has an empty header row, with your real header pushed down into the body. Text that only has tabs between the cells, from a terminal, a CSV file or a chat window, is not converted at all. Spreadsheet to Table handles both, and:
- escapes a
|inside a cell, which would otherwise split it in two; - keeps a line break inside a cell as
<br>, instead of breaking the row; - right-aligns columns of numbers —
1,234.50,12%,$40,(7)— and lines the columns up in the editor; - keeps the table inside the callout, quote or list item you paste it into,
repeating the
>on every line or indenting it to the item.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Paste as table | Reads the clipboard as a table whatever separates the cells: tabs, commas or semicolons, or one cell per line. |
| Convert selection to table | The same, for text already in the note, such as a pasted block of CSV. |
| Copy table for a spreadsheet | Copies the table under the cursor as tab-separated text. Paste it into any spreadsheet and each cell lands in its own cell. |
| Insert CSV file as table | Picks a .csv or .tsv file in your vault and inserts it as a table at the cursor. Files separated by semicolons, as European spreadsheets save them, work too. |
| Copy table as CSV | Copies the table under the cursor as comma-separated text, quoted where a cell needs it. |
| Save table as CSV file | Writes the table under the cursor to a .csv file next to the note, named after it. Nothing already there is overwritten. |
| Sort table by this column, ascending / descending | Sorts the rows of the table under the cursor by the column the cursor is in. Numbers sort as numbers (1,234.50, 12%, $40, (7)), text sorts naturally (item 9 before item 10, case aside), and empty cells go last. The header stays on top. |
| Transpose table (swap rows and columns) | The first column becomes the header row, and each row a column. |
| Copy table as rich text | Copies the table (or the table in your selection) as a real HTML table, plus tab-separated text. It pastes as a table in Google Docs, Word or an email, with bold, italic, code and links kept, the header row as header cells and column alignment. Falls back to plain text where the clipboard won't take HTML. The note is not changed. |
| Convert JSON array to table | Turns a selected JSON array of objects (or of arrays) into a table: the keys are the header, a missing key leaves an empty cell, nested values stay as compact JSON. |
| Insert row above / below, Delete row, Move row up / down | Edit the row under the cursor. The header row can't be deleted, moved or have a row inserted above it, and the only body row can't be deleted. |
| Insert column left / right, Delete column, Move column left / right | Edit the column under the cursor. The last column can't be deleted. Alignment travels with the column. |
| Align column left / center / right, Clear column alignment | Sets the alignment of the column under the cursor. |
| Table tools | Opens a searchable list of all the table actions above, for phones and tablets. |
Every row and column action is one edit (one undo), keeps the table inside its callout, quote or list item, lines the columns up per your settings, and leaves the cursor in the cell you'd expect. They are commands, so they work in source mode and Live Preview, and every command has an icon, so you can put them on the mobile toolbar (Settings → Mobile → Manage toolbar options). Right-click inside a table in the editor for the quick ones (insert row below, insert column right, delete row, delete column) and Table: more tools....
None has a hotkey by default; assign one in Settings → Hotkeys.
When it leaves a paste alone
An ordinary paste is only converted when it clearly came from a spreadsheet: at least two rows and two columns, a tab between cells, the same number of cells on every row. Everything else pastes exactly as before. It also never converts:
- with Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+V, which pastes the plain text as usual;
- inside a code block, inside the frontmatter, or inside an existing table;
- text indented with tabs, such as code, where the first column is empty.
A converted paste is one edit, so a single undo takes the table out again.
Settings
| Setting | Default | |
|---|---|---|
| Convert on paste | On | Off leaves ordinary pastes to Obsidian; use Paste as table instead. |
| First row is the header | On | Off leaves the header row empty, as Obsidian does. |
| Right-align numbers | On | A column is right-aligned when every cell below the header is a number. |
| Line up columns | On | Off writes compact tables with no padding. |
| Default column alignment | None | Alignment of columns that are not numbers when text is converted. Number columns still follow Right-align numbers. |
Coming from Excel to Markdown Table
This plugin does the same job and adds CSV and semicolon input, converting a selection, and copying a table back out to a spreadsheet. Pastes that carry no HTML, such as tab-separated text from a terminal, are converted too. Disable the old plugin before enabling this one, or both will try to handle the same paste.
Installing
Once the plugin is in the community directory: Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for "Spreadsheet to Table", then install and enable it.
Until then, download main.js and manifest.json from the latest
release
into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/spreadsheet-to-table/, reload Obsidian and
enable the plugin.
Privacy
Everything happens in the editor. The plugin makes no network requests and reads the clipboard only when you paste or run Paste as table.
More plugins by Siulved54
| Plugin | What it does | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Blocks | Write a block of text once and reuse it in any note. Edit the source and every reference re-renders live. | shared-blocks |
| Text Case and Cleanup | Change case, make camelCase or slugs, sort lines and remove duplicates, and repair text pasted out of a PDF, without touching code or URLs. | text-format |
| Typography as You Type | Curly quotes, dashes and ellipses as you type, kept out of code and maths, with Backspace to take one back. | smart-typography-plugin |
| Section Numbering | Number headings as an outline (1, 1.1, 1.2) and keep every link to them working when they renumber. | section-numbering |
| Hybrid Line Numbers | Relative and hybrid line numbers for Vim-style jumps, where a folded section counts as one line. | hybrid-line-numbers |
| List Item Callouts | Colour a single list item as a callout by starting it with a character such as &, ! or ?. |
list-item-callouts |
| Folder Counts | See how many notes or files each folder holds, right in the file explorer, with a vault total and folder exclusions. | folder-counts |
| Note Reading Time | Reading time of the current note or your selection in the status bar, optionally saved to a property. | note-reading-time |
| Task Rollover | Roll unfinished tasks from your last daily note into today's when it is created, with a real undo. | task-rollover |
| Zoom Into Section | Zoom into a heading or list item to see only it and its contents, with a breadcrumb bar to climb back out. | zoom-into-section |
| Link Title on Paste | Paste a web address and get a Markdown link with the page's title, fetched in the background and undone in one step. | link-title-on-paste |
| Update Radar | Checks your installed community plugins for updates in the background, shows what changed, and flags the ones that look abandoned. | community-update-checker |
| Dataview to Bases | Convert Dataview queries into Bases blocks, and see which queries in your vault can be converted. | dataview-to-bases |
| Line Editing Commands | Duplicate, join, sort and reverse lines, insert blank lines and jump to a line number, with multi-cursor support. | line-editing-commands |
| Note Mover Rules | Move notes into folders by ordered rules on tags, properties, titles and paths, with a preview before any bulk move. | note-mover-rules |
| Tab History | Keeps each tab's back and forward history across restarts, and adds commands to move, maximize and close tabs. | tab-history |
| URL Cards | Shows web addresses as cards with title, description and image, and reads existing cardlink blocks. | url-cards |
| Vim Config | Loads a vimrc-style file from your vault so your key mappings and editor commands are ready when vim mode starts. | vim-config |
| Task Archive | Moves completed tasks, with their sub-items, into an archive section or note. | task-archive |
| Revisit Later | Link the current note into a future daily note, with a date typed in plain English, so it comes back when you want to review it. | revisit-later |
| Explorer Colors Plus | Color files and folders in the file explorer, with a palette, cascading to children, and import from File Color. | explorer-colors-plus |
| Book Lookup | Create book notes from Open Library or Google Books, with cover images, ISBN search and Book Search compatible templates. | book-lookup |
| Web Search Menu | Search the web for selected text or the note title from the right-click menu, with engines you define. | web-search-menu |
All of them are in the community directory: Settings -> Community plugins -> Browse, then search for the name.