SpreadsheetConverter Calculator vs Insert Pages

SpreadsheetConverter (https://www.spreadsheetconverter.com/) turns an Excel workbook into an interactive, calculating web page. This plugin embeds that calculator in WordPress as a Gutenberg block — rendered inline by your theme (no iframe), SEO-visible, and recalculating live as visitors type. You create the calculator with the SpreadsheetConverter add-in for Excel. It works in Excel desktop (Windows or Mac) and in Excel on the web, which is free with a Microsoft account — so most people can use it without buying Excel. There is a free trial — install it from https://addin.spreadsheetconverter.com/install Three hosting modes: Server form (recommended) — click Publish to the Server in Excel (SpreadsheetConverter Server), then Copy link, and paste it. The form mounts inline on your page straight from the Server — calculating live, saving what visitors type as records on the Server, no Server menus, no iframe. Any conversion flavor works; you do not need the Embeddable option for this mode. Host on this site — paste the conversion link copied from the SpreadsheetConverter task pane in Excel and click Host on this site. WordPress fetches the calculator from the SpreadsheetConverter cloud and stores it inside your own site (wp-content/uploads/ssc-embed/). Everything is then served same-origin — fast, no CORS, and the calculator keeps working forever, even after the conversion link expires. Link to the cloud — click Publish to Cloud in Excel, paste the permanent link. The calculator stays on the SpreadsheetConverter cloud; your page references it and is always current when you re-publish. An offline fallback lets you upload the calculator zip manually if your WordPress host cannot reach the SpreadsheetConverter cloud. Classic (non-block) themes can use the [ssc_calc] shortcode. One calculator per page. The block validates the pasted link and tells you exactly what to do if it is the wrong kind (for example a temporary “Test in Cloud” link). External services This plugin connects to SpreadsheetConverter services in three situations, each initiated explicitly by an editor — never on a public page view in self-host mode: Host on this site — when an editor clicks the button, the WordPress server downloads the calculator bundle from the conversion link’s host (*.spreadsheetconverter.com). The pasted URL (containing the conversion job id) is the only data sent. Link to the cloud — the page embeds the calculator directly from the SpreadsheetConverter hosting cloud (*.spreadsheethosting.com); visitors’ browsers request the calculator files from that host. When configuring the block, the WordPress server fetches the published calculator’s index page once to read its name. Server form — the page embeds the form directly from SpreadsheetConverter Server (server.spreadsheetconverter.com); visitors’ browsers request the form and its assets from that host, and what a visitor types into the form is saved as a record on the Server (that is the product: a saving form). Nothing is fetched by your WordPress server in this mode. Both services are provided by Framtidsforum I&M AB (SpreadsheetConverter). Terms of use: https://www.spreadsheetconverter.com/terms-of-use/ Privacy policy: https://www.spreadsheetconverter.com/privacy-policy/ Getting started Part 1 — Convert your spreadsheet (in Excel) You need the SpreadsheetConverter add-in for Excel to convert your workbook. It runs in Excel desktop (Windows or Mac) or in Excel on the web (free with a Microsoft account — no need to buy Excel). Install it (free trial) from https://addin.spreadsheetconverter.com/install Start Excel and open your workbook — e.g. mortgage-calculator.xlsx. Open the SpreadsheetConverter task pane (Home ribbon → SpreadsheetConverter). Sign in if prompted (required to convert). Press Convert. For the recommended Server mode any flavor is fine — the Server compiles the workbook itself. For Host on this site or Link to the cloud you must select Flavor = HTML and tick the Embeddable checkbox first — those two modes embed the converted bundle, and only an Embeddable HTML conversion produces it. The spreadsheet becomes an interactive web calculator (a few seconds). Get the link to paste into WordPress. On the green Converted card: Recommended: press Publish to the Server, then Copy link on the Published to the Server card — a permanent link to your form on SpreadsheetConverter Server (visitors’ entries are saved as records there). To host it on your own WordPress site: under ▸ More options → WordPress, press Copy link — the short-lived conversion link (use it within a few minutes). To link to the SpreadsheetConverter cloud instead: under Classic cloud, press Publish to cloud, then copy the permanent link. Only a permanent Publish-to-cloud link works for cloud-linking — a temporary “Test in cloud” link (its address contains /tmp/) is rejected by the block. In every case you paste the whole link and the block double-checks it. Nothing is downloaded to your computer. Part 2 — Add it to your WordPress page Open your WordPress page for editing (Pages → Add New). You are already signed in to WordPress here — that is why you never type a password into Excel. Add the SpreadsheetConverter block (＋ → “SpreadsheetConverter Calculator”). Paste your link. The block recognizes the link type and offers the matching option: Server form link (…/forms/your-form, a record link …/forms/your-form/17, or the …/embed.html address itself) → Embed from the Server (recommended). Click it. The form mounts inline straight from the Server — no Server header, menu or records row, just the form, styled by your theme. Conversion link → Host on this site. Click it. WordPress fetches your calculator and stores it inside your own site. Publish-to-Cloud link → Link to the cloud. The calculator stays on the cloud; your page references it. Temporary “Test in Cloud” link → the block shows: “This is a temporary test link — click Publish to Cloud in Excel for a permanent one.” A Server link that is not a form (a Records list, a Properties page, a private link) → “Paste the form’s own link — the address ‘Open your form’ opens in Excel (…/forms/your-form). Records lists, Properties pages and private links can’t be embedded.” Anything unrecognized → “That doesn’t look like a SpreadsheetConverter link — copy it again from the Excel panel.” See the live preview inside the editor — no grey iframe, theme-styled, calculates live. Press Publish (the WordPress button). The page goes live. View your live page. It calculates, validates, moves between sheets, and Submit works. On a Server form, what a visitor types is saved to the Server exactly as on the Server’s own page: a small save status sits at the top of the form, action buttons show their outcome in the page, and you find the records under Records on the Server. Server forms — notes and limits One calculator per page (all modes; the calculator is page-global). Classic themes: [ssc_calc token=”https://server.spreadsheetconverter.com/t/acme/forms/order”]. Updating later: re-publish to the Server — your page mounts the new version on reload; nothing to change in WordPress. Returning visitors: in most browsers a visitor who comes back to your page is recognized again (the Server keeps their identity in a partitioned cookie) and continues with their earlier entry. A browser that refuses partitioned cookies starts a fresh entry instead — the earlier one stays safe on the Server. No sign-in inside the mount: a members-only form shows the Server’s refusal in the save status with a link to sign in on the Server’s own page. Forms published before this release: re-publish once so images inside the form and returning-visitor recognition work in the mount (both ride a per-form file that updates on publish). Your site sends its own Content-Security-Policy? Allow https://server.spreadsheetconverter.com in script-src, style-src, img-src and connect-src — the same four the cloud-link mode needs for spreadsheethosting. WordPress itself sends no CSP by default. Troubleshooting: open …/forms/your-form/embed.html directly in a browser. If it works there but not on your page, the issue is your page’s CSP, a plugin stripping the custom element, or a theme script clashing with a global the calculator uses.

Insert Pages lets you embed any WordPress content (e.g., pages, posts, custom post types) into other WordPress content using the Shortcode API. It also includes a widget for inserting pages into any widget area. The real power of Insert Pages comes when you start creating custom post types, either programmatically in your theme, or using another plugin like Custom Post Type UI. You can then abstract away common data types (like videos, quizzes, due dates) into their own custom post types, and then show those pieces of content within your normal pages and posts by Inserting them as a shortcode. Advanced Tutorial Contributor Wes Modes has graciously written an updated tutorial for the Gutenberg era, focused on creating a custom post type with custom fields and a custom template for rendering content. Read it here: https://medium.com/@wesmodes/using-wordpress-insert-pages-plugin-with-your-custom-post-types-and-custom-templates-535c141f9635 Example: Normal Use Case Say you teach a course and you’re constantly referring to an assignment due date in your course website. The next semester the due date changes, and you have to go change all of the locations you referred to it. Instead, you’d rather just change the date once! With Insert Pages, you can do the following: Create a custom post type called Due Date. Create a new Due Date called Assignment 1 Due Date with Fri Nov 22, 2013 as its content. Edit all the pages where the due date occurs and use the Insert Pages toolbar button to insert a reference to the Due Date you just created. Be sure to set the Display to Content so Fri Nov 22, 2013 shows wherever you insert it. The shortcode you just created should look something like this: [insert page='assignment-1-due-date' display='content'] That’s it! Now, when you want to change the due date, just edit the Assignment 1 Due Date custom post you created, and it will automatically be updated on all the pages you inserted it on. Example: Advanced Use Case Say your site has a lot of video content, and you want to include video transcripts and video lengths along with the videos wherever you show them. You could just paste the transcripts into the page content under the video, but then you’d have to do this on every page the video showed on. (It’s also just a bad idea, architecturally!) With Insert Pages, you can use a custom post type and create a custom theme template to display your videos+transcripts+lengths just the way you want! Create a custom post type called Video. Use a plugin like Advanced Custom Fields to add extra fields to your new Video custom post type. Add a Video URL field, a Transcript field, and a Video Length field. Create a new Video called My Awesome Video with the following values in its fields: Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0 Transcript: We’re no strangers to love, You know the rules and so do I… Video Length: 3:34 Create a template in your theme so we can display the video content as we want. I won’t cover this step here since it’s pretty involved, but you can find more help in the WordPress Codex. Let’s assume you created a template called Video with transcript (video-with-transcript.php) that shows the youtube video in a fancybox, and includes a button that shows the text transcript when a user clicks on it. Edit the pages where you want the video to show up and use the Insert Pages toolbar button to insert a reference to the Video you just created. Be sure to set the Display to Use a custom template, and select your new template Video with transcript. The shortcode you just created should look something like this: [insert page='my-awesome-video' display='video-with-transcript.php'] That’s it! Now you can create all sorts of video content and know that it’s being tracked cleanly in the database as its own custom post type, and you can place videos all over your site and not worry about lots of duplicate content. The possibilities are endless!