Trying to Create Individual PDF Reports Based on Excel Spreadsheet

Just started trying to use Plumsail to automate a laborious task at work.

We have to generate PDF reports of performance for various campaigns.
For whatever we have an approach where we put the data in a PPT with images to make it look nicer rather than just providing the direct report.

I'm trying to use Plumsail to bridge this report where I can take the excel/csv automatically generated report and fill out a PPT template.

The issue i'm running into currently is the best way to pull the information from excel.

I've tried setting up a Zapier but it seems to only pull metadata and name from the spreadsheet rather than actual fields from the spreedsheet for me to map to the to my template in PPT.

Any guidance on a good way to map the columns and rows in excel to a template in Plumsail would be a big help.

To answer my own question. It came together properly when I changed to updated rows instead of worksheets.

My only question now is I need to update multiple rows before this should trigger. How do I make sure it doesn't trigger until everything needed is filled out?

Hi @Tony_Bowens,

Probably try to delay the actions to update multiple rows adding some delay in Zapier. Please check out their instructions on this.

Add delays to Zaps.

Best regards,
Petr
Plumsail team

Thanks responding.

One more for you if that's okay.

I've gotten adding photos to the PPT up and running but it doesn't like sharepoint/one drive links.
Even though people can publically access the image directly and download it without an account it still throws an error. Images from other sources, like word press, work.
I'm assuming there isn't a way around the permissions issue but figured I'd ask.
Are there services whose URLs are known to work or not work?

Hi @Tony_Bowens,

The photo link should be publicly available. For example, you should be able to open the image link in the browser incognito mode. There is no list for services with such URLs, though.

The picture formatter also accepts base64 code. You can grab the file content from the SharePoint/OneDrive and convert to base 64, then pass to the token.

Best regards,
Petr
Plumsail team

To convert it to base64 would I need to rebuild my setup in PowerAutomate?
There isn't a good match for the trigger in zapier of when an excel sheet changes in Power Automate.

Unrelated is there an easy way to have a row be hidden in a powerpoint if there isn't any data for that row?

Is tehre a way to connect with someone who could walk me through the best way to execute what I'm trying to accomplish? Even if it's a paid 3rd party?

Apologies for combining questions.

Hi @Tony_Bowens,

You can build the same flow in Power Automate and there is a convenient option to convert an image to base64 as it's shown in the article * Pictures in DOCX templates.

base64(body('Get_file_content'))

Otherwise, you can try some workaround in Zapier. For example, I found this thread in their community.

Regarding hidden the rows. PPTX templates supports * hide-block-if formatter. There is also an article that demonstrates how to use it.

Please feel free to contact us at support@plumsail.com with a reference to this thread. We can work further with the questions in the ticket.

Best regards,
Petr
Plumsail team

Hi I put in a ticket using the site but didn't get a response. Should I use the e-mail?

Hi @Tony_Bowens,

I see you opened a ticket SP38330 and my colleague replied there. Please check.

Best regards,
Petr
Plumsail team