Publish a spreadsheet without publishing the secrets in it

Spreadsheets are the documents people most want to share and the ones most likely to carry something they never meant to. A payroll file has a Social Security column nobody remembers. A budget has a hidden tab with last year's salary bands. A summary sheet is full of formulas that point at data you did not intend anyone to see.

This is how to publish a spreadsheet more safely, and what FlipbookIQ does to help.

How spreadsheets leak

Most leaks are not mistakes of judgment. They are things that are easy to overlook.

• Hidden columns and rows. Hidden means out of sight, not removed. Anything that copies the file copies them.
• Hidden sheets. A tab you cannot see is still in the file.
• Formulas. A formula can reveal what it calculates from, and where.
• A column that does not belong. An ID, a date of birth, a bank detail, added for one purpose and forgotten.

What FlipbookIQ does

When you choose a spreadsheet in the Studio, the file is opened in your own browser. It is never uploaded. Then:

1. Only what is displayed is read. Formulas are never read, only the result each one shows. Hidden sheets, hidden rows and hidden columns are skipped. Nothing outside the range you choose is touched.
2. A check runs before anything is published. It looks for Social Security numbers, card numbers that pass the standard card check, bank and account details, passwords, health information and dates of birth. It does this by the shape of the values and by the column heading.
3. It tells you what it found, and shows a masked example. You see "Social Security numbers in SSN, 25 cells, for example •••••1000", not the numbers themselves.
4. Flagged columns are left out by default. To publish one anyway, you have to confirm that you understand it will be visible to anyone who has the link.

Publishing step by step

1. Open the Studio and choose New flipbook, then Start from a spreadsheet.
2. Drop in an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file.
3. Choose the sheet and the range, such as A1:H35.
4. Read the sensitive-data check and leave out what should not be public.
5. Look at the preview of page one. Choose portrait or landscape, and whether to keep your formatting or use a clean table style.
6. Publish. A long table runs onto more pages, with its heading row repeated on each.

Letting readers work with the table

On Pro and Business you can tick Readers can sort, filter and search this table. This is different from the pages: it uploads what each cell displays, for the columns you kept, so readers can sort, filter and search. Formulas are never uploaded. The page itself stays an ordinary page, so it still prints, searches and works offline.

You can also let readers download what they see as a CSV file. Think before you tick that one: a download is a copy.

A summary page you edit

You can ask for a plain-English summary page, drafted from the headings, simple totals and a sample of rows. It uses one AI credit. It is a draft: nothing is published until you have read and changed it, and the draft is told to use only the figures it was given.

What it cannot do

Be honest with yourself about the limits.

• It finds recognizable patterns. An account number with no heading and no telltale shape can slip through. Read your pages before you publish.
• Charts and pictures inside a workbook are not drawn yet. The pages show the cells.
• It does not refresh itself. If the spreadsheet changes, publish again. A new version removes the interactive table, because the numbers would no longer match the pages.
• Size limits apply. A range can be up to 3,000 rows and 80 columns for pages, and an interactive table up to 2,000 rows.
• Excel's old .xls format is not supported. Save it as .xlsx first.

A habit worth having

Publish from a copy, not the original. Delete the columns you do not need before you start. Then let the check catch what you forgot. A spreadsheet you have reduced to what the reader needs is safer, and usually clearer.

Open the Studio and try it on a file you were about to email.