Copy and Paste is old school...embedding is the new thing!

Ever been to a website that clearly has outdated information on it?  Ever had your own website that was just too challenging to edit that it kind of fell by the wayside in terms of updating pricing or other variable information?  Well embedding files just might be simple trick  you have been needing!

I met with one of my clients for a few drinks on Friday.  We were discussing some of their current challenges in their workflow and their schedule listed on the website came up any number of times.  It is so technical to change that only one person in the office can do it.  So I showed them this cool new method of embedding files into web pages.  It isn't overly technical, but is amazingly powerful.


Btw...in case you were interested, while we were talking I had the Fireman's 4...it is an amazing brew!  It has a different hint of a citrus flavor to it, but it is quite amazing!

So, maybe the best way to explain this embedding is with an example.


Lets say you have a spreadsheet that you want to share with your customers on your website.  Currently you would probably put a link to it and allow people to download it.  Well, it falls on your shoulders should something change to the spreadsheet to make sure the new version is uploaded to the website for your customers.  FTP, CMS and a host of other things including making sure you update the right file and test the link to make sure you are getting the right one are involved.  These are extra steps that are simply no longer necessary in many cases.  Using a service like Google Spreadsheetss or MS Excel Webapp, you can create the spreadsheet and then embed it into your website.  This involves a small snippet of code but puts the spreadsheet live on your website.  Your customers no longer have to download it.  They just view it there on the website, but the best part is if you make a change to the original file since it is embedded on your website the change will instantaneously show up there too.  It is kind of like a window into your file from your website.  This is once again a power of the cloud!!


Here below I will embed a few different examples of documents from both Google Apps and Microsoft Web Apps.  As you look at these just remember it is as simple as editing them through the service as you would a normal spreadsheet, but because the website is setup to have the file embedded, it will update instantaneously!  It can seriously remove a huge headache and keep some variable information on your website constantly updated!




MS Excel Web App Example:

Google Apps Spreadsheet Example: