A custom-made Excel template is an .xlsx file you design freely: page layout, fonts, colours, tables.
In it, you place tags where you want each piece of information to appear. A tag is the code of a field, for example ##customer##: on export, it is replaced by the value entered in that field.
You can create several templates for the same form.
⚠️ Important
The form must be saved before you can create a custom-made Excel template.
1. Prepare the template
In the Forms menu, My forms tab, click the Modify button of your form. From its design page, click the Export setup button, at the top right.
Click the Add a new export button under Custom-made Excel, then Download example.
You get a basic template containing the tags of all the form’s fields.
Open this file in Microsoft Excel and place each tag in the cell where the information should appear. You can place several in the same cell, colour them, add images and adjust the page layout.
ℹ️ Good to know
When a Photo tag is placed in a cell, the photo is positioned, on export, in the top-left corner of that cell.
Before customising your template, it is recommended to read the tutorial Best practices for a custom Excel export: it sets out the rules to follow to avoid any export error.
1.1 Format the data
To colour a piece of data, make it bold, italic or underlined, apply this formatting directly to the tag in the cell: it is kept on export.
💡 Tip
Hidden sheets in the template do not appear in the custom PDF: to get an export on a single page, simply hide those you do not need.
1.2 Manage the row height of a table
In a table, only the row heights of the first page are respected. From the second page onwards, all rows take the height of the last row of the first page.
Two solutions are possible:
use a custom-made Word template, which manages row height on all pages: this is the recommended solution;
add the number of each row in square brackets in the table tags, a method suited when the number of rows is known in advance (see the paragraph “Retrieve information from a specific line of a table” of the tutorial Customize your tables in your Word and Excel reports).
2. Import and configure the template
Go back to the Custom-made Excel window (Add a new export button). Drop your file into the dotted area, or click it to select it.
2.1 The options of the Field settings tab
Once the file is imported, the Field settings tab offers these options:
Option | Effect |
Name of the export | Name of the template. |
Edit the name of the exported files | Name of the downloaded files, which can contain tags (see the tutorial Customise the name of your exports). |
Export Excel as default | This template is offered first in the History of the data and in the Attachments tab of the email scenario. |
Display hidden fields | Invisible fields, hidden by a visibility condition or set to “Always hidden field”, display their value in the export. |
Make images clickable | Clicking a photo in the Excel or PDF file downloads it. |
Download example | Gets a basic template containing the tags of all the fields. |
Download the current model | Gets the Excel file already present in the form. |
2.2 Tag analysis
As soon as the file is imported, Kizeo Forms automatically analyses the tags in the file. The result appears on the right of the Field settings tab, in three categories with the number of tags concerned. Each category can be expanded to show the tags concerned.
Each category corresponds to a specific tag status:
Result | Meaning |
⚠️ Possible issues detected | Some tags are badly built: they may cause the data export to fail. |
ℹ️ Useless tags | Some tags no longer match any field in the form. |
✅ Valid Kizeo tags | Everything is in order. |
Check this result before saving the template.
⚠️ Important
If tags are reported as incorrect or useless, they must be corrected for the export to run smoothly.
2.3 The options of the Access rights tab
In the Access rights tab, the Show to users box is ticked by default: users can then export their data with this template. If it is unticked, the template is not offered to them.
The PDF and Excel boxes let you choose the format(s) offered: custom PDF, custom Excel, or both.
Once both tabs are filled in, click Save.