Samvinas HelpCSV export — for facilitators
Every flow tool can hand you its results as a CSV file — the
lingua-franca format that spreadsheets and analysis tools import natively.
Open a tool's ⚙ menu, choose the Data tab, and Export CSV. The file
downloads immediately, named <EVENTCODE>-<Tool-name>.csv.
(For a shareable, formatted write-up of the whole event — including charts and sketches — use the event report instead; CSV is for working with the data.)
The file format
The files follow the standard CSV conventions (RFC 4180), so they open cleanly without any settings-fiddling in most software:
- First row = column headers; every row after it is one record.
- Comma-separated, one line per record. Any idea text containing commas, quotes or line-breaks is safely quoted — a multi-line idea stays one record.
- UTF-8 encoded (with a byte-order mark), so accented characters and emoji survive — including in Excel, which historically mangles plain UTF-8.
- Averages use a decimal point with two places (e.g.
3.50).
Opening it
- Google Sheets — File → Import → Upload, or drag the file into Drive and open it. Everything is detected automatically.
- Excel — double-clicking works. If your Windows locale uses commas as the decimal separator and columns come in wrong, use Data → From Text/CSV and pick Comma as the delimiter.
- Apple Numbers — opens directly.
- Anything else (R, Python, a database): it's a standard UTF-8 CSV; no surprises.
What the columns are, per tool
The layout mirrors what the tool shows on screen, flattened to one-row-per-record so you can sort and filter:
| Tool | Columns |
|---|---|
| Voting | Rank · Item · Author · Votes (most votes first) |
| Ranking | Position · Item · Avg Rank · Best Rank · Worst Rank · Responses |
| Value / Doability | # · Item · both axis averages · Responses (columns take your axis labels) |
| Stakeholder Map | # · Item · both axis averages · Responses (columns take your axis labels) |
| Clustering | Cluster · Item · Author (ungrouped items listed last) |
| Tagging | Tag · Item · Author — or, in multi-user mode, Item · Consensus Tag · one tally column per category |
| Tagged Brainstorming | Bucket · Idea · Author |
| Sign Up | Item · Sign-up (one row per signature) |
| Word Cloud | Word · Frequency (the full list — the on-screen cloud shows only the top words) |
| Brain Writing | # · Idea · Provocation · Author |
| Five Whys | Level · Statement · In Response To · Root Cause (the tree, flattened depth-first) |
| Elaboration | Item · Elaboration · Author |
| PPCO / ALoU / LCO / PMI | Idea · Attribute · Entry · Answers Concern · Author (attribute names follow your custom labels) |
| Evaluation Matrix | # · Option · one average column per criterion · Total · Responses (sorted best-first; columns take your criterion labels; unscored cells are blank, not zero) |
| Backcasting | Block · Step · Author · Comments (latest block first; unplaced steps last) |
| Rich Brainstorm | # · Idea · Author · Sketches (a count — the drawings themselves are in the HTML report) |
| Brainstorm and any other tool | # · Idea · Author · Created |
Three tools have no CSV of their own: Breakout Groups and Personal Workspace keep their data in their child events (export from inside the group or workspace), and Instructions has no data — its content appears in the HTML report.
One habit worth having
Export before you Reset or delete a tool. Undo exists, but a CSV on your laptop is the copy nobody can take away.