While Microsoft Excel is a go-to program for data management, it might be causing you to work harder, not smarter. Going from an Excel spreadsheet to an online database simplifies your life significantly. But how does this process play out?
This article will explain how to complete the conversion to the database in the most efficient way.
Here is the content:
- How to Prepare Your Excel Spreadsheet for Conversion?
- 5 Easy Steps to Converting Excel Spreadsheet to an Online Database
How to Prepare Your Excel Spreadsheet for Conversion?
Before submitting your spreadsheet to an online database platform, you have to make sure that it’s formatted right. It will ease the process of conversion and eliminate the possibility of errors. Only with clear formatting can the program recognize your lists and assign them with proper values.
There are several simple rules you can follow:
- Include headings at the top of the column in each of your lists.
- Every file must contain only one sheet. If that’s not the case, transfer the data from additional sheets to new documents.
- Check if the cells’ format is compatible with the values displayed.
- Remove all the cells located outside of the list area.
- Avoid using graphs and formulas, as you cannot import them to an online database.
- If you want to create pivot tables, the best is to leave them after the conversion process. Creating pivot tables in Kohezion is more efficient and less time-consuming than with Excel.
- Decide what to do with password-protected data, comments, or highlights. They, too, can’t be imported.
Keeping these rules in mind, you will convert the spreadsheet to the database within minutes, without any difficulties.
5 Easy Steps to Converting Excel Spreadsheet to an Online Database
By now, you’ve probably decided to shift your data management from Excel spreadsheets to an online database. To help you carry out this conversion with ease, here is the simple strategy you can go by:
- Create an Account: If Kohezion is your platform of choice, the first thing you should do is create a Kohezion account. Once you log in, it will provide you with these three options for making your first online database:
- Using a Template: You can select your desired database-style from our lists of templates.
- From Excel: Upload your .xlsx file and convert your existing spreadsheet into a database.
- From Scratch: Build your custom database just the way you want it.
- Have a Ready Spreadsheet: Now that you have an account, you’ll need to save your spreadsheet data as Microsoft Excel File or Comma Separated Value File. Make sure that your file format is right. It will make the converting process more manageable and help you avoid any mistakes.
- Import the File: After choosing to upload a file from Excel, a pop-up window will appear on the screen. It will offer you to select the file you want to import. Before moving on to the next step, you need to name the number of the row that contains the column captions.
- Choose Your Field Types: Once you have imported a file, you’ll see a preview of how Kohezion will sort your spreadsheet data. There is a ‘Field Name,’ ‘Field Type,’ and ‘Format’ option. Everything is filled out automatically according to Kohezion’s recommended types, but you can make the desired changes. You can also unselect specific columns you might not want to import. The neater your spreadsheets are before converting, the less you’ll have to spend on this editing.
- Customize: Now that you have successfully converted an Excel spreadsheet to an online database, this last step is optional. If you are satisfied with how your database application looks, you can visit the ‘Workspace’ tab and view all your imported records. However, if you’d wish to customize it more to fit your needs perfectly, you can do so in the ‘Builder’ tab. There you will find the standard data fields, such as single-line text, date, or files, and additional ones are under the Dropdown menu. Simply drag and drop desired data fields wherever you need them. Each of them has properties you can configure and set to get the preferred functionalities.
These five steps should be useful guidance to get your online database running. Don’t worry if you happen to need any extra help with Kohezion. You’ll have access to video tours for every tab on the platform. They include examples and analysis of each feature, and all their properties are explained while hoovering them.
The Turnkey Solution
This converting process is straightforward, even for people without technical knowledge. However, if you don’t have the time or your database is extensive, Kohezion offers a Turnkey solution. It refers to an in-depth understanding of your requirements and the optimization of all the necessary components. This solution could improve your overall data management. Depending on your preferences, our experts can take care of as little or as much data as you wish. Examples are importing pre-existing data, designing applications, creating projects, setting-up users and user groups, etc.
Conclusion
Whether you’re using Excel as a simple database, reporting tool, or tracking mechanism, you can always import your Excel spreadsheets to Kohezion. Persevering your existing data is a must, so converting to a custom database application without any programming is undoubtedly the best solution.
With this article, we’ve tried to give you an idea of how quickly you can execute this process. Before doing so, you should remember to clear the formatting of the spreadsheet you wish to convert. When done, you can proceed to finish those five main steps:
- Create an account
- Have a ready spreadsheet
- Import the file
- Choose your field types.
- Customize
You can now extend your database with sophisticated functionality like authentication, user privileges, email alerts, charts, and pivot tables. If you have many Excel databases and would like to migrate to Kohezion, you could always opt for our Turnkey solution.
