Menus from Google Sheets
Keep prices and items in a Google Sheet; your menu boards update within about two minutes — no publishing.
A menu widget reads your items and prices from a Google Sheet. Change a price in the sheet and every menu board using it updates within about two minutes, with no publishing.
1. Make the sheet
Make a Google Sheet with a heading row. These are the columns SignBlink reads; only Item and Price are required:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Item, Price | The only columns you need. |
| Description | A short line under the item. |
| Section | Coffee, Kitchen, Bakery… Or put a section name on a row by itself. |
| Small, Medium, Large | Prices by size. Any size names work: 12 oz, 16 oz, Pint, Slice… |
| Photo | A picture link (Google Drive or Dropbox links are fine), or the name of a photo you've uploaded to SignBlink. |
| Tags | V, VG, GF, DF, N (nuts), H (halal), spicy, new, popular. |
| Sold out | Put an x and the item shows as sold out (or is hidden). |
| When | When the item is on the menu: 7am-11am, until 11, after 5pm, Mon-Fri 4-6pm, weekends. See below. |
| Featured | Put an x on the items the Featured item layout shows. |
2. Share it
In the sheet, choose Share → General access → Anyone with the link (Viewer), then Copy link.
3. Add it to a design
- Start from a Menus from Google Sheets template, or add Widgets → Menus from Google Sheets to any design: Menu list, Menu with photos, Photo cards or Featured item.
- Select the menu and paste the sheet's link.
- Set the layout, what each item shows, and the fonts and colors.
Until a sheet is linked, the menu shows sample items so you can design around them.
Breakfast, lunch and happy hour: items on a schedule
Put times in a When column and each item shows only then. Screens follow their own clock (and time zone), so breakfast comes off at 11 even if the internet is down.
| You write | It means |
|---|---|
7am-11am | 7 to 11 in the morning, every day |
until 11 or before 11am | From opening until 11 am |
after 5pm or 5pm-close | From 5 pm to the end of the day |
Mon-Fri 4-6pm | Weekdays from 4 to 6 pm (happy hour) |
weekends or Sat, Sun | All day Saturday and Sunday |
11am-2pm, 5-9pm | Lunch and dinner |
Fri 9pm-2am | Friday night, past midnight |
To put a whole section on a schedule, put the section's name on a row by itself with the times in its When cell. Leave When empty for items that are always on.
For happy-hour prices, make a Happy hour section with Mon-Fri 4-6pm in its When cell and list the deals under it. They appear on the menu only during happy hour, while the regular items stay put.
If SignBlink can't read a When cell, the item always shows and the designer lists the cell so you can fix it. To ignore the column, turn off Show items only at their times.
Featured item
The Featured item layout shows one item at a time, big, with its photo, and takes turns every few seconds. Put an x in a Featured column on the items to show, or choose Tagged popular or new or Every item. Sold-out items are skipped, and items on a schedule only take part at their times.
Items in Square, Toast or Clover
Export your item list from your point-of-sale system, then open Google Sheets and choose File → Import to make a sheet from the file. Link that sheet as usual. SignBlink reads their own column names (Item Name, Variation, Category, Archived…), puts each item's sizes together as one item, and leaves out stock and SKU columns.
The sheet doesn't stay in sync with your point-of-sale system: when prices change, update the sheet or import a fresh export.
Not using Google Sheets?
Paste a link to a CSV file instead of a sheet: a Dropbox or OneDrive share link, or a file on your own website. It needs the same heading row, and it's checked for changes just as often. Excel files need saving as CSV first (File → Save a copy → CSV).
If it doesn't update
- Check the sheet is shared as Anyone with the link. SignBlink can't read private sheets.
- Give it two minutes; screens check the sheet regularly.
- If the menu shows an error in the designer, the message says what to fix, like a missing Item column.