Google Sheets manual

The Google Sheets workflow lets you author a Telar exhibition in a shared spreadsheet. You catalogue your sources, arrange story steps and write narrative text in rows and columns; Telar reads that content and builds the website.

This approach suits people who prefer a spreadsheet, want to review several records at once or write with a team. The sheet brings together narrative content and metadata. Images and other media load from their source addresses or from files in your site.

How the spreadsheet fits together

• objects holds your source catalogue, including descriptions, credits and addresses.
• project lists the stories and sets their order in the exhibition.
• Each story has its own tab. Each row is a step, connecting text to an object, its framing and its panels.
• glossary defines terms you can link from your text.

How it works

1. Set up the site and sheet. Create a Telar repository on GitHub, copy the Google Sheets template and connect its published address to the site.
2. Write and arrange. Catalogue objects, add stories and steps, and develop the text. Use the site's viewer to choose image framings.
3. Build and review. Run the build on GitHub to bring in the updated sheet content. Open the website and check the result.

Editing a cell does not immediately update the public site. Each build reads the published sheet and produces a new edition of the exhibition.

Before you begin

You need Google and GitHub accounts. The guided setup takes you from copying the templates to connecting the site and generates your configuration file. If you are still developing the narrative, begin with Plan an exhibition.

In this manual

1. Set Up with Google Sheets
2. Manual Setup
3. Understand the spreadsheet
4. Add an object and a first story
5. Frame, review and publish from Sheets

Reference for your work

• Files and columns
• Sources and content
• Site configuration