Creating an output for word

[Ben_Johnson]

Hi,

Sorry I’m a bit new to airtable and have made a nicely functioning test database as a store for info but have a question about how we would like to output and actually make use of the data stored in the database.

I am in real estate and have a database of buildings within our area and keep track of relevant sales and leasings of the properties. I would like to search say ‘retail lettings in 2018’ or ‘building sales over $20 million in 2017’ select a few that are most relevant and then output these to a formatted table I can paste into a word document.

I think I can do the search, select stuff but is there a way to output to a formatted table?

Any help appreciated.

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

One option that comes to mind is to use the “Download CSV” option once you have applied your filter/sort/grouping to drill down to the records you want to see:

Then you can bring the data from the CSV file into whatever program you need for formatting - this may prove most flexible for you.

Airtable doesn’t have the best options for exporting multiple records in a formatted way, but I did discover that you can copy the cells of the records you want (select them and ctrl/cmd + C), and then paste them into a pre-made table in MS Word of the same size. Below there is a link to a screen-recording of me doing it - I was testing it while recording, so you’ll see that the first time I tried to paste, I tried to paste with just the first cell selected - that pasted all the cells I copied into just that cell. Then I tried using cmd + A to select the whole thing and paste the cells into it - that deleted the table and replaced it with just the text of what I copied from my table. Then I found the right way to do it - select all the cells in the table in Word by clicking and dragging from one corner to the other - then with all the cells selected, ctrl/cmd + V to paste the data into those cells.

Be aware - you must make the table in MS Word first, and it must be the same size as the cells you copied from Airtable.

It’s not the prettiest output, but it should be functional - not sure how much formatting you were looking for. You’ll have to do all the formatting outside of Airtable.

[Ben_Johnson]

Thanks for that. Had seen the csv output and that isn’t going to work. The copy/paste option you’ve provided could work but just trying it now adds a few steps as you need a correctly sized table (users need to think!) and then there is a bit of post paste formatting. Am hoping there may be more options?

Are there any Blocks or integrations I should be looking at?

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

The only Block I’m aware of that does anything like what you’re looking for would be the “Page Designer Block”, but it’s forte is exporting the fields of a single record in a formatted way. It has options for exporting multiple records (such as all the records in a view) with a couple different formatting styles:

However, there’s no preview, and I’ve not had success in getting this to return anything recognizable as formatted records. But I have not tried a lot at all because I have no need for that really.

You might give this “Records in a specific view” setting a shot because it may do what you need. Then you can just create a view for each “query” you make and export the records that result from your filtering/sorting/grouping. Sorry I can’t be of more help with what the output looks like.

EDIT: to add that none of the other blocks seem to have any export or printing options.

[David_Isaac]

I find the easiest way is to copy from Airtable then paste into Excel, do additional filtering if desired, then copy from Excel and paste into Word.

It would be great if Airtable would paste a selection as a table directly into Word.