When you need to transfer data in bulk from one of our Chaos databases to another program or to another person, exporting to CSV or Excel XLS files allows you to put the data in a standard format that could be imported to almost any other program.
When exporting you need to consider...
If you are using Chaos Intellect or Time & Chaos, you have a Report view available, which you can switch to by clicking the button in the lower left or by going to the View button on the toolbar at the top. Report is only available in our paid versions. Report offers you a place where you can change the columns without affecting your main display as well as a place to do more advanced searches, so you'll likely want to be on this view as you plan your export. However, even the main classic view can choose fields and choose records, so exporting can still be done even with the limited Chaos Free program.
Exporting can be done on the screens that show your data in columns, like the main classic view does or our report screen does. You'll see the current columns along the top and you can right-click on the column headings and select which columns (or fields) are displayed. This, in turn, allows you to control what fields are exported in your CSV or XLS file.
For Contacts, our classic screen can show all names or filter the list of records by Group or Categories. For Appointments and Tasks, our classic screen can show items for a specific date and be further filtered by Group or Categories.
Highlight the items you want to export, then right-click and choose Export. You can then select Excel Worksheet to make an XLS file or select CSV file. You will be prompted for a location and name, then our program will save your data to that external file.
If you need a more advanced search than this (and have Intellect or Time & Chaos) you can use our Report screen to perform your export.
In the lower left corner of Intellect or Time & Chaos, below Classic is an option to use our more advanced Report screen. This option is NOT found in the Chaos Free freeware version.
The Report screen has a choice on the left to pick the type of data you want to export. The column headings on this screen are similar to the main Classic screen where you can right-click and select each of the columns that match the fields you need to provide in your export file.
To select which records you want to find to export, you can use the Group or Categories filter buttons on the toolbar just as you would from the Classic screen, plus you can ask for something advanced using the criteria choices on the left side of the Report screen. You could find appointments before (less than) or after (greater than) a specific date or use both to find the items between two dates. You could find contacts with a primary city of Miami or records with that matched something you were looking for in a custom field.
As you use groups, categories or search criteria, you'll see these added to the caption above the toolbar for this section, to help you remember what criteria is currently in place. If you need to, there is a Reset button on the left to allow you to start your search criteria over from the beginning.
As on the Classic screen, once you find the records you want to export, highlight them then right-click to choose Export and save it as an Excel worksheet XLS file or as a CSV file. You'll be prompted for a location and name for where the exported data should be saved.
This video from our Chaos University video series shows how this feature works:
This help article applies to Intellect 4 or newer, Time & Chaos 8 or newer, and Chaos Free