Include Excel Content

Create the XML spreadsheet file

Open Excel and create a spreadsheet with a simple table like this one.

Once you have completed editing the spreadsheet, save it as an XML Spreadsheet.

Here's a copy of the above spreadsheet in Excel and XML.

Once it is included in your topic. It will be displayed like any other table in your collection, according to the style defined in your publication stylesheet.

Add the Include element

Back into Tópico, open the topic you want the spreadsheet data and add the following <include> element:

<include href="include_excel_worksheet.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
            xpointer="xpath1(ss:Workbook)" />

About the above <include> element:

• The XML Spreadsheet is included as the source document;
• The Workbook element that is referenced is in the "ss" prefixed namespace.

Tópico's ini file contains the list of namespace entries you can use in your publication. By default, namspaces are defined for the following prefixes:

Here's how the ini file looks like:

<section id="namespaces">
 <set key="ns" prefix="xml" uri="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="xhtml" uri="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="html" uri="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="xi" uri="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="o" uri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="x" uri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="ss" uri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="atom" uri="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" />
 <set key="ns" prefix="sch" uri="http://www.ascc.net/xml/schematron" />
</section>		

You can add namespaces to this list to accomodate your specific requirements.

Create an XSLT template for the spreadsheet

Since you'll be introducing foreign elements in your topic, you'll need to come up with the appropriate transformation for your imported content. This will be done by creating a new template. To make you life easier, you'll simply import the existing template and add only the new markup to this file.

Here's a complete template for the spreadsheet above:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
      version="1.0" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" 
      xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" 
      xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" 
      xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
 <!-- templates parameters -->
 <xsl:import href="template_user_guide.xsl"/>
 <!--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-->
 <!-- excel workbook template -->
 <xsl:template match="ss:Workbook" mode="import">
  <div class="excel_workbook">
   <xsl:apply-templates select="ss:Worksheet[@ss:Name='Sheet1']" mode="import"/>
  </div>
 </xsl:template>
 <!--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-->
 <!-- excel worksheet template -->
 <xsl:template match="ss:Worksheet" mode="import">
  <div class="excel_worksheet">
   <strong>Excel Worksheet Data</strong>
   <table>
    <tbody>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="ss:Table/ss:Row" mode="import"/>
    </tbody>
   </table>
  </div>
 </xsl:template>
 <!--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-->
 <!-- excel row template -->
 <xsl:template match="ss:Row" mode="import">
  <tr>
  <xsl:choose>
   <xsl:when test="position()=1">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="ss:Cell" mode="import_title"/>
   </xsl:when>
   <xsl:otherwise>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="ss:Cell" mode="import"/>
   </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
  </tr>
 </xsl:template>
 <!--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-->
 <!-- excel cell template (title) -->
 <xsl:template match="ss:Cell" mode="import_title">
  <th>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="ss:Data" mode="import"/>
  </th>
 </xsl:template>
 <!--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-->
 <!-- excel cell template (data) -->
 <xsl:template match="ss:Cell" mode="import">
  <td>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="ss:Data" mode="import"/>
  </td>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The above template, which includes all the appropriate namespaces, first imports the existing template to get it's default output and then defines a new template for the ss:Workbook element.

<xsl:template match="ss:Workbook" mode="import">

The ss:Workbook template then call sub elements with the appropriate "ss" prefix. This approache makes editing multiple templates easier than if you're trying to keep everything in one template.

Select an alternate template for the topic

Now that you have a specific template for your topic, you can assign this new template by following these 2 steps:

1. Select the Topic tab;
2. From the Topic template drop down list, select the alternate template.

Your now ready to publish your collection with the Excel data. The table at the top of this topic was included this way.

Referencing Access and Word content would require about the same workflow but with different elements and namespaces.

As an exercise, you can add CSS classes to your Excel tables in your template and assign them stylesheet selectors to make you Excel spreadsheet stand out in your publication.