Exporting Cards to Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and Scrivener

This page explains how to export your cards to another app. If you have content from another app and would like to import them into Card Buddy, see Importing into Card Buddy.

Currently there are three options for exporting to file for working with other apps:

• Markdown
• xlsx
• csv

Markdown is a text file format that has special “markup” to denote text styling. Markdown files can be used to export to Scrivener.

xlsx and csv are file formats that can be read by spreadsheet apps like Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and Apple Numbers.

Choosing XLSX or CSV

If you want to export to a spreadsheet app, you may be wondering which format to use, either XLSX or CSV. Generally, you should use XLSX unless the spreadsheet application is unable to read it. If XLSX doesn’t work, try CSV next.

XLSX will retain some basic formatting, whereas CSV will not. The XLSX rows and columns will be tall and wide, respectively, so the text will be easier to read. Auto-styled cards will be styled as centered and bold in the XLSX. The card background color will be maintained as well. With CSV, all the text will be plain and card colors won’t be retained.

In either case, each card exported to the XLSX or CSV will be placed in its own cell. Images are currently not exported.

How to Import XLSX and CSV into Google Sheets

• Click on the File / Import menu item
• In the dialog that appears, click the Upload tab
• Click the browse button to select the XLSX or CSV file you’d like to import
• An “Import file” dialog will appear, click the “Import data” button

For CSV files, you may want to adjust the formatting of the cells to be taller and wider, with wrapped text.

How to Import XLSX and CSV into Microsoft Excel

XLSX and CSV files can both be opened from the File menu.

For CSV files, you may want to adjust the formatting of the cells to be taller and wider, with wrapped text.

How to Import XLSX and CSV into Apple Numbers

XLSX and CSV files can both be opened from the File menu.

For CSV files, you may want to adjust the formatting of the cells to be taller and wider, with wrapped text.

How to Import Markdown into Scrivener

First, export your cards to a markdown file within Card Buddy:

• First, open the Card Buddy document you’d like to export
• Next, on Mac, select File / Export To File / Markdown… to save to a .md file
• Next, on iOS, tap on the ellipsis button in the top-right corner of an open document and then tap “Export to file / Markdown”

Once you’ve saved this markdown, you can import it into Scrivener following these steps:

• It’s recommended that you first create a new Project in Scrivener to import to. Click File / New Project… from the menu.
• Select “All” in the side bar and then double-click Blank to create a new project
• Once the new project is created, select File / Import / Import and Split… – This step is important. Be sure to click “Import and Split…” and not one of the other options.
• A file dialog should appear and you should see an input field labeled “Sections are separated by:”. If you don’t see this field, make sure you clicked the “Import and Split…” menu item in the previous step. (If you selected File / Import / Files.. in the previous step, you will not see this input field.)
• In the input field, type three dashes: ---
• Select the .md or .txt file that was exported
• Scrivener will create a new draft note for each card found in the markdown file