Make a chart from a Google Sheet that updates

The work that eats an afternoon is not making the chart. It is making it again next week, and then rewriting the paragraph around it.

How to do it

1. In Google Sheets, share the sheet so that anyone with the link can view. Copy the address from your browser.
2. In Indexcard, press Add data, then Link a Google Sheet, and paste the address.
3. The rows come back for you to check before they are imported.
4. Build your charts and write around them as usual.

Next week, press Refresh on the source. The sheet is read again, every chart is redrawn, and every number you wrote into a sentence is worked out again. You are shown what moved.

What you should know

• The reading is one way. Indexcard never writes back to your sheet.
• If a refresh fails — the sheet was unshared, say — the last good data stays, and the card keeps working.
• Columns are matched by name. Renaming a column in Sheets means the charts built on it need pointing at the new name.
• A sheet that is not shared by link cannot be read. There is no Google sign-in to grant, which also means Indexcard never holds access to the rest of your Drive.

CSV and Excel

A one-off file does not need linking: drop a .csv or .xlsx straight in, or paste the cells. Linking is for the thing you will do again.