Every tab becomes a table, and the tables can point at each other

Teams moving off Google Sheets, Excel, Smartsheet, Airtable or Notion, who want their data as real tables with types and links instead of the same grid in another tool.

  • Google Sheets and Excel: every tab becomes a table, the first row becomes the fields
  • Smartsheet and Notion: column and property types map to real field types
  • Airtable: linked records and attachments come too; every source can keep in sync
  • Up to 10,000 rows a table from most sources; up to 100,000 from Airtable
  • Turn a column of names into links to another table after the import
  • A CSV or Excel file on your computer imports with nothing to connect
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THE OPTIONS

Spreadsheets and databases, side by side

Microsoft Excel

Turn a workbook in OneDrive or SharePoint into real tables — every sheet becomes a table, the first row becomes the fields.

Import Sync

Smartsheet

Import Smartsheet sheets as RowFold tables, with their typed columns mapped to real field types.

Import Sync

Airtable

Import your bases at full fidelity — tables, fields, records, linked records and attachments — and keep them mirrored while you switch.

Import Sync

Notion

Import Notion databases as RowFold tables, with their properties mapped to real field types.

Import Sync
Everything Notion does
HOW TO DO IT

How to set it up

I want a spreadsheet's tabs as linked tables, not copies of the grid

The import gives you one table per tab. The part that makes the move worth doing comes after: turning the columns that name things on other tabs into real links.

  1. Connect Google Sheets, or Microsoft Excel for a workbook in OneDrive or SharePoint Google Sheets opens Google's own file picker, so RowFold only ever sees the spreadsheets you choose.
  2. Import the spreadsheet Every tab becomes a table named after it, and each tab's first row becomes the field names, so tidy a header row that holds notes or merged cells first.
  3. Set each field's type under Fields & setup Columns arrive as text. Make dates, numbers and choice lists their real types, because the type is what makes filters, totals and date views work.
  4. Use Convert to Relation… on a column that names records on another tab For example, Customer on Orders. Each row is linked to the customer with that name, ignoring case, and a row that doesn't match keeps its text unlinked for you to fix. A synced import fills the column the same way on the rows it adds later, so the link holds for new rows too, and the run names any customer it could not find.
  5. Add a rollup on the other table On Customers, total the linked orders' amounts. The total keeps itself up to date as orders are added.

You'll know it worked: Open one customer and check the orders linked to it match the rows that named that customer in the spreadsheet. The message after converting says how many values it linked, and the gap is the text left for you.

I want to move off Airtable without a cutover weekend

Airtable brings its links and files across, and Keep in sync lets both tools run side by side while people move over. Nothing is deleted on RowFold's side during the sync.

  1. Connect Airtable and import the base Tables, fields, records, linked records and attachments come across, up to 100,000 records a table.
  2. Press Keep in sync and choose hourly or daily Each run adds new Airtable records and updates changed ones. On the columns that came from Airtable, Airtable's value wins.
  3. Build new work on columns of your own Fields you add in RowFold are never touched by the sync, so statuses and notes typed in RowFold survive each run.
  4. Press Stop sync when nobody uses the base any more The tables stay as they are and become ordinary RowFold tables from then on.

You'll know it worked: Change a record in Airtable, wait for the next run, and check the change appears in RowFold. Then check a field you added in RowFold still holds what you typed.

WHAT IT FIXES

The three things that actually go wrong

In a spreadsheet, a customer is typed out on every row that mentions them, a little differently each time. Totals per customer need a pivot table that breaks when somebody adds a column.

Every tab or sheet becomes a table, with its first row as the field names. Convert to Relation… then turns a column of typed names into links to another table, and a rollup totals per customer from then on.

Changing tools usually means a cutover weekend: everybody stops, the data is copied, and anything typed into the old tool afterwards is lost.

Every source here can stay in step while you switch. Keep in sync re-imports hourly or daily, adding new records and updating changed ones, and deletes nothing on RowFold's side, so teams can move one process at a time.

It is hard to know in advance what a move will keep. Field types, linked records and attachments are where copies usually fall apart.

Airtable comes across with its fields, linked records and attachments. Smartsheet and Notion map their column and property types to real field types. Google Sheets and Excel bring every column in as text, as the sheet displays it, and you set the types afterwards.

One automation worth building

When an order is created…

  1. Update the linked customer's Last order date to today
  2. Only continue if the customer's Status is Lapsed
  3. Post to the sales channel that a lapsed customer has ordered again
QUESTIONS

Before you start

Does the imported table stay in step with the spreadsheet?

It can, one way, from every source here: importing again updates the tables the first import made, and Keep in sync does that hourly or daily. Airtable, Smartsheet and Notion records are matched on their own IDs; a Google Sheets or Excel row has none, so it is matched by its first column, and changing that cell brings it in as a new record. Nothing writes back to the source. For a move, sync while people switch over, then stop once the spreadsheet is no longer where work happens.

How many rows can come across?

Up to 10,000 rows a table from Google Sheets, Excel, Smartsheet and Notion, and up to 200 columns from Google Sheets and Excel. Airtable takes up to 100,000 records a table and up to 2,000 attachment files per import. An import that reaches a limit stops there and says so in its warnings, so a short table is never silent.

Can I import a file from my computer?

Yes, with nothing to connect. Open Manage workspace, then Import data, and drop in CSV or Excel files, several at once. It shows what it found before anything is written, and it detects columns that point at another table. Connect Google Sheets or Excel when the file lives online and you'd rather not download it first.

Why can't RowFold see all my Google spreadsheets?

Because it asks Google for access only to the files you choose, not your whole Drive. You pick each spreadsheet in Google's own file picker when you import, and anything you haven't picked stays out of RowFold's reach. A spreadsheet missing from the list just hasn't been picked yet.

What happens to the formulas in my sheet?

Values come across, not formulas. A total the sheet calculated arrives as the value it displayed. Rebuild the useful ones in RowFold as formula or rollup fields, which keep working when rows are added, and drop the ones that only existed to stitch tabs together, since links do that job now.

Where to go next

Related

The spreadsheet that quietly became the system

Anyone whose real operational record is a Google Sheet with six tabs, a tab everybody knows not to touch, and a column of dates that are secretly text.

A Notion database is a lovely collection of pages

Teams who built their operations inside Notion, love it for writing, and have watched one particular database grow into the thing the business actually runs on.

Leave Airtable without leaving your data

Teams running their operations on Airtable — orders, projects, clients, inventory — who want the relational model they already like, without the seat math, the add-on line items, or a migration weekend.

Three sheets about one customer become one customer

Teams whose operations have outgrown a sheet — jobs against sites, orders against customers, invoices against both — and who currently hold those connections together with cell links, cross-sheet references and somebody's monthly export.

Turn a pile of form responses into work somebody owns

Teams collecting enquiries, applications, orders or feedback in Typeform, Jotform or Tally, who need each response owned by somebody, followed up and counted instead of left in the form tool's results screen.

Describe yours and watch it build

There is no template to wait for. Type a sentence about what you run and RowFold assembles the tables, links, views and dashboard around it — then you change whatever does not fit.

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