How to create a direct link to your Google Sheets spreadsheet

To create a direct link to your spreadsheet, follow these steps:

First, create a sharing link of your Google Sheet.
Note

You may need to enable link sharing first. You'll need to set it to any one of the following sharing permission levels:

On - Anyone with link can view
On - Anyone with link can edit
On - Public on the web can view
On - Public on the web can edit

To enable sharing on your Google Sheet, follow these steps:
1. Open your spreadsheet in Google Drive.
2. Click the blue Share button in the top right hand corner to open the Share with others modal.
3. If your file isn't shared already, click Get shareable link.Otherwise click the dropdown to choose the access permissions and select More...
4. In the popup window select either On - Anyone with link can view or On - Public on the web.
5. Click Save.
6. Back on the Share with others modal, click Copy link to copy your sharing link.
7. Click Done to close the Share with others modal.
Now to create the sharing link. We recommend using this link generator tool to receive a direct download link.

Enter your generated link from Google in the Enter Share Link field and click Generate.
Next we'll need to change the generated URL because this link will download in PDF format by default. Copy the generated URL and paste into a text editor.

To make it download in .xlsx format, change the end of the URL from ?format=pdf to ?format=xlsx.

Here's an example sharing link generated from Google Sheets:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gnNj6NFErrRY0NqEBVuYzPcxJ8hnFPzZ01QDeo8xAW4/edit?usp=sharing

Example URL generated by the tool (set to .pdf download by default):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gnNj6NFErrRY0NqEBVuYzPcxJ8hnFPzZ01QDeo8xAW4/export?format=pdf

Example final Geckoboard-friendly link in .xlsx download format:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gnNj6NFErrRY0NqEBVuYzPcxJ8hnFPzZ01QDeo8xAW4/export?format=xlsx

Now you're ready to use the edited link in Geckoboard!

Hover your cursor over the dashboard square you would like to position your new widget and click the + button.
Search for Spreadsheets using the Search sources field.

Alternatively, you can also click the Spreadsheets button.
From the Choose File menu, click on the link  icon.
Copy and Paste your URL in the Link to file field.
You can now continue updating your Google Sheet as usual and it will automatically sync with Geckoboard via the generated link.

Now that you've linked up your spreadsheet with Geckoboard, you can now begin creating visualizations using your spreadsheet.