Guide

From spreadsheet to seating chart

The RSVP tracker is done: names, households, meal choices. The seating chart should be a step, not a second project. The trick is to keep the spreadsheet as the source and only ever move data in one direction.

Three columns is enough

Name, party, dietary. The party column is whatever grouping you already track - family name, friend group, "work", "college". It is what keeps households and close groups together without any extra effort. Dietary notes ride along so the caterer's table-by-table count comes free.

Copy, do not export-import-configure

Select the three columns, copy, paste into the maker. One guest per line, comma or tab separated, header row detected automatically. No field-mapping wizard. If the sheet has middle columns you do not need, copy the columns one range at a time into a scratch sheet first.

Let the machine do the first draft

Auto-seat places whole parties on tables with room, respecting any keep-apart rules you set. The first draft is rarely the final chart - it is the version where the remaining decisions are small enough to make by hand. Drag the ten people you actually care about, not the hundred you do not.

Save the file, not the tab

Save the chart as a .json file next to the spreadsheet. When three guests cancel the week before, open the file, move the affected tables, reprint only what changed.

Try it now

Paste straight from the sheet - the free maker needs no signup and uploads nothing.

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