I was hoping, to increase my productivity, that i could use Excel as a Rainmeter Skin. Basically using it as a Background and every time i save my excel.xlsx file it would update my background with the same spreadsheet as well. so creating a link between rainmeter and the file. is that possible?
Any help with be really appreciated since i have almost 0 knowledge about rainmeter.. If its possible, how would i go about implementing it?
It is currently March 29th, 2024, 2:39 pm
Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
What do you mean by background? Like a wallpaper, the visual background of your skin, the name of the file in an "edit box" in the skin, the name of the file as a clickable "link" shown in the skin, or what?JP2K wrote: ↑August 28th, 2020, 11:02 am I was hoping, to increase my productivity, that i could use Excel as a Rainmeter Skin. Basically using it as a Background and every time i save my excel.xlsx file it would update my background with the same spreadsheet as well. so creating a link between rainmeter and the file. is that possible?
Any help with be really appreciated since i have almost 0 knowledge about rainmeter.. If its possible, how would i go about implementing it?
Other than that, Rainmeter can't detect when a program saves one of its files, only if that program is running or not mostly, and I'm not sure Excel has command line abilities that can be used to save files and be run from Rainmeter. Maybe an AutoHotkey script could be built for that and executed by Rainmeter, but more details would be needed as to what exactly would you like to happen...
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
Hi JP2K
In addition to Yincognito's post...(but maybe not useful)
Generally speaking, It is impossible to create a link between Rainmeter and Excel file as far as I know... unless someone has created some Excel plugin for Rainmeter.
But... as a really indirect way, it would be possible without such plugin. But you know, it's a bit annoying and not smart procedure, like as;
1. When save the Excel data, you also save it as a CSV file using some export macro.
2. Parse the CSV file using WebParser measure.
3. Display parsed data with desired format simulating Excel sheet.
Honestly, I don't want to do such thing. Could you explain why you want to display Excel sheet as a Rainmeter skin?
In addition to Yincognito's post...(but maybe not useful)
Generally speaking, It is impossible to create a link between Rainmeter and Excel file as far as I know... unless someone has created some Excel plugin for Rainmeter.
But... as a really indirect way, it would be possible without such plugin. But you know, it's a bit annoying and not smart procedure, like as;
1. When save the Excel data, you also save it as a CSV file using some export macro.
2. Parse the CSV file using WebParser measure.
3. Display parsed data with desired format simulating Excel sheet.
Honestly, I don't want to do such thing. Could you explain why you want to display Excel sheet as a Rainmeter skin?
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- Joined: August 28th, 2020, 10:56 am
Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
I would like to use it as a wallpaper for my second monitor to keep track of tasks i have to get done during the week. so i would schedule all those tasks in excel on the weekend for the next week and then use it as a background. but if i have to quickly edit something i would just like to go back to excel, change it, and then for rainmeter to update the background accordingly. it would make everything so much easier.
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
Hi JP2K
So... do you want to try the above method I wrote? If so, I would post about the export macro which is automatically launched when Excel sheet is saved...
So... do you want to try the above method I wrote? If so, I would post about the export macro which is automatically launched when Excel sheet is saved...
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
If I would be able to still edit the file after it was exported then yes, it would be much appreciated and a great help!
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
Good idea. And instead of trying to detect when Excel saves the file (which wouldn't be possible), continuously parse the CSV file every 5 or 10 seconds using WebParser. Yeah, I believe it would work. Good luck in implementing it.mak_kawa wrote: ↑August 28th, 2020, 12:24 pm Hi JP2K
In addition to Yincognito's post...(but maybe not useful)
Generally speaking, It is impossible to create a link between Rainmeter and Excel file as far as I know... unless someone has created some Excel plugin for Rainmeter.
But... as a really indirect way, it would be possible without such plugin. But you know, it's a bit annoying and not smart procedure, like as;
1. When save the Excel data, you also save it as a CSV file using some export macro.
2. Parse the CSV file using WebParser measure.
3. Display parsed data with desired format simulating Excel sheet.
Honestly, I don't want to do such thing. Could you explain why you want to display Excel sheet as a Rainmeter skin?
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
Might be more efficient to check the modified date on the .cvs file periodically with the FileView plugin, and react to that.Yincognito wrote: ↑August 28th, 2020, 1:04 pm Good idea. And instead of trying to detect when Excel saves the file (which wouldn't be possible), continuously parse the CSV file every 5 or 10 seconds using WebParser. Yeah, I believe it would work. Good luck in implementing it.
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
Hi JP2K
The export macro saves csv file having the same base name along with Excel file. So, you can of course edit Excel file after export, and when save updated Excel file, CSV file is again exported/updated.
And... the export macro is somewhat complicated if you are not familiar for Excel VBA. Is it OK?
But actually... for my Rainmeter skill, 2. Parse the CSV file using WebParser measure. seems to have some difficulty unless the source data has fixed Rows/Columns... my thought is possibly not enough, sorry. Maybe someone will present better idea...
The export macro saves csv file having the same base name along with Excel file. So, you can of course edit Excel file after export, and when save updated Excel file, CSV file is again exported/updated.
And... the export macro is somewhat complicated if you are not familiar for Excel VBA. Is it OK?
But actually... for my Rainmeter skill, 2. Parse the CSV file using WebParser measure. seems to have some difficulty unless the source data has fixed Rows/Columns... my thought is possibly not enough, sorry. Maybe someone will present better idea...
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Re: Using Excel as a Rainmeter Skin
I would think parsing .csv would be easy enough. You just have to look for "," to delimit the fields.mak_kawa wrote: ↑August 28th, 2020, 1:22 pm Hi JP2K
The export macro saves csv file having the same base name along with Excel file. So, you can of course edit Excel file after export, and when save updated Excel file, CSV file is again exported/updated.
And... the export macro is somewhat complicated if you are not familiar for Excel VBA. Is it OK?
But actually... for my Rainmeter skill, 2. Parse the CSV file using WebParser measure. seems to have some difficulty unless the source data has fixed Rows/Columns... my thought is possibly not enough, sorry. Maybe someone will present better idea...