This guide will walk you through the process of displaying the images directly within your spreadsheets.
Why?
This can help transform your list of image URLs into a visually rich dataset by displaying the actual pictures right inside your Google Sheet.
How to display images from URLs in Google Sheets
Step 1: Build your robot to extract the image URLs from your target website.
During robot building, capture the image URL of the images you want to capture. Here's an example of a task result:
Step 2: Integrate the robot with Google Sheets to automatically populate your spreadsheet with the scraped data
If you see the menu tabs (including Integrate tab) being greyed out, make sure to approve your robot to enable the rest of the menu.
Note: Your robot don't retroactively append all previously extracted data the moment you integrate your robot to Google Sheets, so you will need to run another task for the syncing to happen after integrating your robot.
Step 3: Run a task to sync your data
After integrating your robot <-> Google Sheets, run a task by clicking on the purple Run task button, found on the Run Task tab:
Step 4: Locate the column containing the image URLs
Open your Google Sheet and identify the column containing the scraped image URLs. Here's an example:
Note the column letter (e.g., N, A, Z) as you'll need this for the next step.
Step 5: Adding a formula using the IMAGE function
You can either:
Display all images in a blank column
Create a new (blank) column wherever you want your images to be displayed in, and put a header name.
For instance, in this screenshot, the blank column was made right beside the product name:
In the first cell of the new column (e.g., the cell directly below the header), enter the following formula:
=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(O2:O<>"", IMAGE(O2:O), ))ARRAYFORMULAallows the formula to apply to the entire column.IF(O2:O<>"", ... , )checks if the corresponding range of cells in the image URL column is not empty.IMAGE(O2:O)fetches and displays the image from the URL in the corresponding range of cells.O2:Ois the range of cells containing your image URLs.
Make sure to adjust the corresponding cell range accordingly.
Display images on specific cells
If you only want to display images from specific cells, you can use the
IMAGEfunction directly.In the cell where you want to display the image, enter:
=IMAGE(O2)Replace
O2with the cell containing the image URL you want to display.You can repeat this for other specific cells.
Step 6: Allow access when prompted by Google Sheet
After you enter the formula (whether for a whole column or a single cell), Google Sheets will need permission to get the images from the internet using the URLs. You'll see a prompt asking you to allow this connection. This is normal and required for the images to show up:
Step 7: Image displaying in your spreadsheet
After allowing access, you should start to see the images loading into your previously empty column. Here are some samples:
Displaying all images:
Displaying specific images:
Troubleshooting common issues
Image not loading:
This might happen if the URL is broken, misspelled, or no longer points to a valid image. Check the URL in a web browser to ensure it works.
Error displayed instead of image:
This likely means the URL is invalid or the IMAGE function encountered a problem fetching it. Verify the URL to make sure it works.
Images are too big or too small:
Google Sheets tries to fit images within the cell. You can manually adjust the height of the rows and the width of the columns to change how the images are displayed.
Things to consider
Depending on the size and number of images, it might take a few moments for them to load.
Google Sheets might resize images to fit the cell. You can adjust the row height and column width to better display the images.
Make sure that the scraped URLs are valid and point to accessible images. If a URL is broken, the formulas will display an error.
Displaying a large number of images can affect the performance of your Google Sheet.
Be mindful of the source of the images and ensure they are from trusted websites.
Need more help? Feel free to reach out to our support team.