Drop any arbitrary file into Calc cell ???

SailorFred · General User Joined: 16 May 2011 Posts: 6

I'd like to drop a PDF file into a calc cell. Clicking the cell would launch your pdf viewer.

Kind of like an Inserted Hyperlink, except the file is in the cell, and gets saved with your ods. The file doesn't exist outside of your ods.

Here's an application: You have 3 sales guys. Every month, each sales guy submits to you a PDF sales report for the month. For a given year, you'd have a single Spreadsheet with Joe/Fred/Steve in 3 column headings, and Jan/Feb/Mar/etc down the left side. And in the resulting 36 cells there'd be 36 PDF files, ready for clicking if you want to view one. And if you need to send the spreadsheet to Head Office, you send them one single big fat ods, which has all 36 pdfs embedded.

Any ideas?

Ideally it would be for ANY filetype, not just pdfs.

mgroenescheij · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:51 pm Post subject:

Hi,

Calc is a calculator not a cabinet.
What you want can be achieved in a database.

Martin
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SailorFred · General User Joined: 16 May 2011 Posts: 6

SailorFred · General User Joined: 16 May 2011 Posts: 6

Oooh Oooh! Getting somewhere:

Insert -> Object -> OLE Object -> Create new / Further objects -> Create New / Adobe Acrobat Document -> Pick your pdf

And there sits your PDF in a cell. The PDF is too big and spills over the edges of your cell in a very ugly manner, but it's there. Double clicking launches adobe reader. Except on my PC, PDF's are associated with PDF-Xchange viewer, not adobe reader. So calc is unhelpfully doing something more than just passing the file to the O/S and saying "Launch this!"