How to Embed Excel in HTML and WordPress (Step-by-Step Guide)

Embedding Excel in HTML or on your WordPress site can transform static data into interactive, dynamic content. Imagine your visitors engaging with live data right on your site—no extra downloads or applications required.

Whether you’re showcasing financial data, analytical results, or dynamic tables, knowing how to embed Excel in HTML and in WordPress is essential. This skill not only enhances user experience but also adds a layer of professionalism to your digital presence.

By the end of this article, you’ll master the techniques to integrate Excel seamlessly into your HTML and WordPress setups. We’ll cover everything from using iframe for embedding, to leveraging WordPress plugins for a smoother experience.

You’ll discover practical steps, pro tips, and common pitfalls to avoid, ensuring your embedded Excel sheets look great and function flawlessly. Get ready to elevate your content game with interactive Excel elements!

Why Embed Excel in HTML?

First, let us review the four main advantages of using and embedding Excel in HTML or WordPress:

You’ll Create Superb Charts

Creating charts in Excel to upload them in HTML and WordPress

Multitudes of columns and rows are not the best way to present data. You can sort and filter all the data within the Excel sheet and present it in an easy-to-navigate manner.

Attractive charts can make your reports or marketing materials come to life and add more power to tedious statistics.

To make it effortless, the program will suggest the most appropriate type of chart for the information you wish to display in your Excel file.

You’ll Use Personalized Formatting

Personalized chart formatting in Excel

To highlight the most important data, you can control the format of your Excel spreadsheet.

You can use different colors and shades, as well as a bold or italic font in your Microsoft Excel file. You may use this feature to focus on the most important portion of information, such as the pre-tax profit or the balance carried forward in your accounting presentation.

Use the Quick Analysis button and the Formatting tab to choose the most suitable coloring scheme for your Excel spreadsheet.

You’ll Pinpoint Trends

Stay on top of trends by embedding Excel on your website

Another great functionality of Excel charts and graphs is that you can display average lines. Averages will help you and your audience to identify the main trends contained in the data. This ensures you have presented the key points.

Moreover, you have the option of extending the trend lines beyond the charts. Creating these predictions will help your business build clear and effective long-term strategies.

You’ll Accumulate Insights

Gather insights with Excel file on your web pages

Microsoft Excel is a practical tool for gathering data from different archives in one place. You can accumulate information from other Excel sheets, import text, and images, and insert other objects.

How to Embed Excel in HTML and in WordPress: 4 Top Ways

We’ve prepared the best way to embed Excel and Google Sheets on your WordPress website:

The Best Way to Embed an Excel File in HTML and WordPress

Embedding an Excel file directly into WordPress can be tricky if you want it to remain interactive, responsive, and easy to update. The easiest and most professional way to do this is by using wpDataTables, which allows you to create fully functional tables from Excel files without any coding.

And you can get more info about the process through our documentation page for importing data from Excel, CSV, or Google Spreadsheets.

With wpDataTables, you can import your .XLS and .XLSX file and instantly display it as a dynamic table on your page or post. The plugin supports linking tables from external sources, so updates to your Excel file can automatically reflect on your website. You can also define column types, sorting, filtering, and styling directly in WordPress, giving you full control over the table’s appearance and functionality.

To embed your Excel table:

  1. Install and activate wpDataTables
  2. Create a new wpDataTable by clicking Create a table linked to an existing data source and
  3. Select and upload your Excel file as the data source
  4. Adjust optional table and column settings (like column type, sorting, and formatting).
  5. Copy the shortcode for the table
  6. Insert the generated shortcode into any post or page where you want the table to appear.

Using this approach, your Excel data is no longer static. Visitors can sort, filter, and interact with it, making your content far more engaging and professional. Whether you want a simple HTML embed or a powerful WordPress table, wpDataTables provides the best solution for Excel integration on the web.

Looking to create data tables in WordPress?

wpDataTables can do that for you. There’s a good reason why it’s the #1 WordPress plugin for creating responsive tables and charts.

An actual example of wpDataTables in the wild

And it’s really easy to do something like this:

  1. You provide the table data
  2. Configure and customize it
  3. Publish it in a post or page

And it’s not just pretty, but also practical. You can make large tables with up to millions of rows, or you can use advanced filters and search, or you can go wild and make it editable.

“Yeah, but I just like Excel too much and there’s nothing like that on websites”. Yeah, there is. You can use conditional formatting like in Excel or Google Sheets.

Did I tell you you can create charts too with your data? And that’s only a small part. There are lots of other features for you.

Check out pricing plans and choose one that works best for you!

Manually Embedding an Excel Sheet In Your WordPress Site

Embedding an Excel Sheet In Your WordPress Site

The first thing you need to do is to upload the file you wish to embed in your WordPress website or post.

WordPress identifies many types of files, among them Excel files. The steps are straightforward using the WordPress dashboard or administration page.

Follow these step by step instructions:

  • Open your preferred web browser.
  • Go to “YourWebsite.com/wp-admin” (“YourWebsite.com” is your WordPress domain).
  • Sign in using your username and password.

Adding Excel file to WordPress

  • In the menu on the left click on “Media” and then choose “Add New” and “Select Files.”
  • Using the file browser that has popped up find the Excel sheet you wish to upload.
  • Type in the title, caption, and description in the respective boxes.
  • Make a note or copy and save the URL in the File URL box (it is necessary to insert the spreadsheet in your posts).
  • Click on “Save All Changes”.
  • Create a new post by clicking on “New Post” on the left of the page.

Insert the URL link to the Excel document you have uploaded in your post.

  • Insert the URL link to the Excel document you have uploaded in your post.

Embedding an Excel Sheet from OneDrive

Embedding an Excel Sheet from OneDrive

Embedding Excel spreadsheets from OneDrive into your blog is doable.

This will allow visitors to sort, filter, and calculate data directly in the post. When you update the workbook on OneDrive, the changes will also be reflected in the embedded spreadsheet in your post.

How to do it? Follow these simple steps:

  • Go to the Microsoft OneDrive
  • In your OneDrive, right-click on the workbook and select “Embed”.

In your OneDrive, right-click on the workbook and select “Embed”.

  • Click on “Generate” and then “Customize” to choose the way you want the embedded spreadsheet to be displayed in your post.
  • In the “What to show” box, you can select what you want to display (the entire workbook, a chart, a named range, a PivotTable, or a table).
  • Select the options you like in the “Appearance” section.
  • In the “Interaction” section you set the visitor permissions for your workbook. The “Sorting and filtering” option allows the visitors to sort, filter, expand, or collapse the tables or PivotTables. The “Typing” option allows visitors to type in the cells. Take note that these changes will not be saved in your original workbook. The mortgage calculator is a great example of the usefulness of this option. You can embed this calculator in your post and allow visitors to type in different variables such as the loan length or amount.

Embedding Excel file in HTML

  • Check the “Always start with this cell selected” box and choose a specific cell in the preview. This is beneficial if you want to have a particular cell selected every time a reader visits your blog.
  • To specify the size of the Excel sheet displayed use the “Dimensions” section to type in the width and height in pixels. To preview the way your visitors will see it, click on “View actual size”.

Pasting HTML in text editor to add Excel file on a web page

(The minimum size is 200×100 pixels and the maximum – 640×655 pixels. You can then make the embedded Excel spreadsheet smaller or bigger by changing the code after you have pasted it into your post).

Upon completion click on “Copy” (you may need to allow access to the Click board).

  • Create or edit a page or blog post and paste the embed code into the Text Editor. If you are using the block editor, use a Custom HTML block to insert the code.
  • When you update your page or blog post, the embed code will be automatically converted into a shortcode.

Embedding Google Sheets in WordPress with Google Drive

Embedding Google Sheets in WordPress with Google Drive

Google Sheets can be a great option for invoicing, data analysis, employee time tracking, timesheet apps (as an alternative to Excel timesheets), schedules, calendars, and more.

It is a straightforward process to add Google Sheets to your web page or blog. All you need is the embed code added to your website. These are the steps to do it:

Publish Google Sheets

Publish Google Sheets

Ensuring everyone is allowed to see your Google Sheets will require you to publish the file. Go to your Google Drive, open the desired document, click on “File” and then “Publish to the Web.”

It is necessary to select the Embed tab and to choose between publishing the whole document or only selected pages.

It is necessary to select the Embed tab and to choose between publishing the whole document or only selected pages.

When you edit your original spreadsheet, the changes will be automatically republished on the website. You can easily change that by unchecking the “Automatically republish when changes are made” (located in the “Publish Content” and “Settings” tabs).

Click on “Publish” and obtain the shareable Google Sheets link.

Click on “Publish” and obtain the shareable link.

Embed Google Sheets URL

Embedding Google Sheets URL

In WordPress: Copy the iframe code, then on your admin dashboard click on “Select Pages” and “Add New”, and paste the link.

In Gutenberg: Add the Custom HTML block to your page and paste the link in the HTML field.

To change the size of the spreadsheet, you can edit the iframe code. Below is an example of the code if you wanted the width to be 400 pixels and the height – 700 pixels:

FAQ on Embedding Excel in HTML and WordPress

How to embed an Excel spreadsheet in WordPress?

You can upload the Excel file to OneDrive or Google Drive and embed it with an iframe, but for a cleaner, interactive table, using a plugin like wpDataTables lets you import Excel directly and display it as a responsive, sortable table without code.

How do I embed a Google Sheet into a website?

In Google Sheets, go to File > Share > Publish to the web, and choose Embed to get an iframe code. WordPress users can paste that code, or import the sheet into wpDataTables for better styling, filtering, and front-end editing.

How do I convert Excel to HTML?

You can save the Excel file as an .html web page from Excel, or copy and paste the table into an HTML editor. For WordPress, converting through wpDataTables is easier since it automatically turns Excel into clean HTML tables.

How to open an Excel sheet in HTML?

Export it as HTML or embed it using an iframe from OneDrive or Google Sheets. If you’re on WordPress, importing the file into wpDataTables gives you a live, interactive table instead of a static HTML view.

Can Excel format HTML?

Yes, Excel can export to HTML format, but the code is often messy and hard to style manually. Using a tool like wpDataTables avoids that by converting Excel into clean, responsive HTML tables instantly.

How do I put a table into HTML?

You can use basic <table>, <tr>, and <td> tags or embed a spreadsheet via iframe. In WordPress, wpDataTables lets you insert fully formatted tables from Excel without writing a single line of HTML.

How to share an Excel spreadsheet on the web?

Upload it to services like OneDrive or Google Drive and share or embed the public link. For a polished, professional display on WordPress, import it into wpDataTables to share it as a searchable and filterable table.

Is it possible to embed Excel charts in HTML?

To embed it, you have to export your Excel chart as an HTML file or use an iframe. For the iframe method, upload the chart to OneDrive, get the embed code, and paste it into your HTML. This approach makes your chart interactive and accessible directly on your web page. wpDataTables also works with charts, and that’s by far the easiest way to embed Excel charts on your site.

Conclusion

Learning how to embed Excel in HTML and WordPress gets your pages from boring to interactive, always-updated content. There are multiple ways to do so, and we’ve picked the best ones, from using wpDataTables to Excel Online, Google Sheets or One Drive.

These methods make sure that your data remains accessible, visually polished, and easy to maintain. When you connect external spreadsheets to your site, you enhance both credibility and user engagement – especially when updates sync automatically without re-uploading files.

As you continue improving your site’s functionality, it’s worth exploring broader content optimization techniques. For example, knowing how to add meta tags in WordPress without a plugin can boost search visibility, while learning how to hide a featured image in a WordPress post helps fine-tune layout and design. 

Embedding isn’t limited to Excel – if you work with PDFs, you’ll also want to know how to embed a PDF in WordPress to keep documents accessible on-page. 

And as performance plays a major role in user experience, mastering how to optimize CSS delivery in WordPress makes sure that your pages load fast and function smoothly. 


Tamara Jovanovic
Tamara Jovanovic

Tamara Jovanovic is an SEO Content Specialist who enjoys learning about different industries, people, and how to solve problems through content. She is curious by nature and eager to experiment with new ideas that could provide value to readers. Often she spends hours analyzing why things worked or didn’t so she could be equipped with data and improve with every new task. Likes reading, learning, playing games, growing plants, and enjoying a good cup of coffee.

Articles: 15