Import and export a rundown

If your rundown already lives in a spreadsheet, you don’t have to type it in again. Save it as CSV and import it into a room: you see every row, and the timer it becomes, before anything changes. A room downloads too, as a spreadsheet of its rundown, a spreadsheet of its messages, or a room file that keeps its settings, its timers, and its messages, and a file makes a new room from the Rooms page.

For an event’s programme, which makes rooms and fills them over several days, see Import a programme from a spreadsheet.

Prepare a sheet

One row per timer, under a row that names the columns. Save or download the sheet as CSV from Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets; a file another timer exported works too. Choose CSV UTF-8 when your spreadsheet offers it.

• Separators. Commas, semicolons, and tabs all work. The one that splits the header row into columns splits the whole sheet, so a semicolon sheet keeps the commas inside its titles.
• The header row is the first line that names a title column and a length, start, or end column, among the sheet’s first ten lines that are not blank. Lines above it, such as a title block, are skipped, apart from three, each a label and a value, in one cell after a colon or in two cells: Date (or Event date, Show date) gives the sheet’s first day, and Room (or Room name) and Time zone (or Timezone) name a new room made from the file.
• The file. UTF-8, with or without its byte order mark, and UTF-16 with one are read as they are. Any other file is read as Windows-1252, the way an older Excel saves a CSV, and the import asks you to check that its accented letters look right.

The columns

The columns can keep the names your sheet already uses. Capitals, extra spaces, a colon at the end, and anything in brackets are ignored. Each field takes the first column named by one of its words, in this order:

• Title: title, session title, talk title, segment title, segment, session, talk, topic, item, agenda, or name. A column of numbers only, such as cue numbers, is the title only when no other column has a title word.
• Length: length, duration, dur, TRT, runtime, run time, minutes, or mins.
• Start: start, start time, starts, planned start, time in, time, time start, begin, or clock. A time column of bare numbers is never the start: it is the length when no column has a length word.
• End: end, end time, ends, time out, time end, or finish.
• Speaker: speaker, speakers, speaker name, presenter, presenter name, host, moderator, or who.
• Notes: notes, note, description, details, remarks, comment, or comments.
• Labels: labels, label, tags, tag, or category.
• Start mode: start mode, trigger, or start type.
• Day: day or date.

A header whose brackets name a unit, such as Duration (min), Length (s), TRT (h), Duration (mm:ss), or Run (hh:mm), is read only as a length. (s), (min), and (h) say what a bare number in it is; (mm:ss) and (hh:mm) say how a two-part value reads. When its word is not a length word, as in Run (hh:mm), it is the length only if no column has a length word. (hh:mm) on a start or end word, such as Start (hh:mm), is a time of day, and that column stays the start or the end. A column no field takes is not imported, and the preview names it. You can give any field another column there.

What a cell can say

• Length: 0:45:00 as hours, minutes, and seconds; a number with units, such as 90s, 45 min, 1.5h, or 1h 30m; or a bare number, which is minutes unless the header’s brackets say otherwise. A length runs from one second to 24 hours.
• Two-part lengths, such as 45:00, are read one way for the whole column: as the header’s (mm:ss) or (hh:mm) says, else the way that puts more of them between a minute and four hours, else the way that best fits the gaps between the sheet’s starts, else as minutes and seconds. Another unit in brackets, such as (min) or (h), does not decide them. The preview says which reading it took, with a switch to the other.
• Start and End: a time of day, 24-hour or 12-hour, with or without seconds, such as 14:30, 14:30:15, 2:30 PM, 9am, or 9.30pm. 12 AM is midnight. A bare number is not a time.
• Day: 2026-11-07, 7/11/2026 or 11/7/2026, 7.11.2026, or Day 2, which counts from the sheet’s first day. Slashed dates are read one way for the whole sheet: day first when more of them have a first part above 12, month first when more have a second part above 12, and otherwise as your browser writes dates, with a switch to the other.
• Start mode: manual, linked, or scheduled, in any case. A row with a start and no start mode is scheduled, and a row with neither starts by hand. A manual or linked row does not use its start, and says so.
• Labels: separated by commas, semicolons, or bars, such as keynote, main stage.
• A dash in a length, start, end, or day cell is an empty cell.

Which rows become timers

• A row with a length, a start, or an end becomes a timer. One with an empty title becomes a timer with no name.
• A row with a start and an end but no length lasts from one to the other, across midnight if it has to. When a row’s start, length, and end disagree, the length wins.
• A row with a start and nothing else runs until the next start on its day, less the lengths of the rows in between that have no start of their own. The last one of a day runs to the day’s End of day time when it has one, and otherwise for ten minutes.
• A row with an end and no start or length becomes a target-time timer, which counts down to that time.
• A row with none of the three, such as a section heading, is skipped, and the preview lists it.

The days come from the Day column, the Date line, and day breaks:

• A row titled End of day, or Day 2, with no length and no start mode, is a day break: the rows after it go on the next day, or on that day of the sheet. A time in an End of day row’s Start or End cell is when its day ends.
• A blank Day cell takes the day of the row above it, as a merged cell exports. A Day cell that is not a date, such as Friday or 8/11/26, is an error, and so is every row below it until a Day cell that is a date.
• When any row has a day, a start, or an end, every timer gets a day. The first day is the Date line, else the earliest date in the Day column. A sheet with times and neither is asked for its day when you import it.
• With no Day column and no day breaks, a start earlier than the one above it begins the next day, with a warning.

Import a rundown into a room

Pro and up

A room’s controller imports a rundown; a moderator can’t.

1. In the room’s controller, choose Settings. Near the end of Room settings, under Import and export, choose Import a rundown. On a plan without imports the button is off, and says which plan has them.
2. Under Spreadsheet file (CSV), choose the file, or paste the sheet under Or paste it here.
3. Check the preview, answer what it asks, and choose Import.

The sheet’s times are read in the room’s time zone, so set it first: while a change to the time zone or the clock format in Room settings is not saved, the import waits.

The preview

The dialog reads the sheet in your browser, and nothing changes in the room until Import. Each choice in it changes the preview at once.

• Columns shows the column each field took, which you can change, or set to None. Not imported names the columns no field took.
• The readings. A sentence says how two-part lengths are read, such as 15:00 as 15 min, as minutes and seconds, with a button to read them the other way. Dates that read either way have one too.
• The rows. Each has its line, a tick, its title, speaker, length, day, start, and end, and what its start does. Untick a row to leave it out. A row with an error, such as a length that is not one, says what is wrong and can’t be ticked; the rows around it still go in. Warnings, such as a start the row does not use, show under the title. The rows that make no timer are listed under the table.
• Under the table, how many timers go in, and their total length.

Starts and days

• Which day? A sheet with times but no day asks which day it is for: Today, Tomorrow, or Another day. Nothing is chosen for you, and Import waits for an answer.

• What do the starts do? A sheet with start times asks this too, with nothing chosen:

  • Start on their own: each timer starts at its time, as any scheduled timer does. A time that comes while another timer runs is passed: its timer doesn’t start, then or when the running one ends. One that comes while the cued timer is paused partway cues and starts its timer. A start that passed within the last day keeps its time but waits for you, and one more than a day past loses its time and starts by hand.
  • Keep the times, start by hand: every start keeps its time on the rundown, the agendas, and the board, and nothing starts until you start it.

  Once you choose, a sentence says how many start on their own and when the first one does.

• Move the days to start on. A sheet with days offers this, filled in with its first day. Choose another date and every day and time moves by the same number of days, so last week’s rundown runs next week.

A start or an end in the hour the clocks skip when they go forward is moved out of that hour, on the same day, with a warning.

Add or replace

Under Into the rundown:

• Add to the rundown puts each day’s timers at the end of that day, in the sheet’s order, and timers without a day at the end. An added timer never goes between the cued timer and the linked timers after it.
• Replace the rundown removes Every timer, or Only the sheet’s days, which a sheet with days offers: the room’s other days and its timers without a day stay. It says how many timers go.

Replace is chosen at first only in a new room that still holds its first timer, untouched. While the cued timer runs, or is paused partway through, Replace is off: choose Reset first, which puts it back to its full length, stopped. Nothing undoes a replace, so a replace that removes timers you made asks first, and offers Download the rundown first.

The import is one change: the screens update once, and a refused import changes nothing. After it, a room with no cued timer cues the first, stopped, and a cued timer that stays stays cued.

When the room is full

A room holds as many timers as its plan allows; see Account and plans. Ticked rows past that, counted after a replace removes its timers, are left out from the end of the sheet. The preview names their lines, and the button says how many of the ticked rows go in. After the import, Room settings says how many timers came in and which lines were left out.

Download the rundown, the messages, or the room

Every plan

Under Import and export, the room’s controller downloads the room in three files. Your browser builds each one from the room it has open, so nothing is sent anywhere.

• Rundown (CSV), saved as <room> rundown.csv: a Room line and a Time zone line, then the columns #, Day, Start, End, Length, Title, Speaker, Notes, Labels, Start mode. Starts and target times are in the room’s time zone and clock format, lengths as h:mm:ss, and days as 2026-11-07.
• Messages (CSV), saved as <room> messages.csv, with the columns #, Text, Colour, Bold, Uppercase.
• Room file, saved as <room>.cuestride.json: the room’s settings, every timer with every setting, and the messages.

Both spreadsheets open in Excel with a double click. A cell that starts with =, +, -, @, a tab, or ' gets a ' in front, so a spreadsheet shows it as text instead of running it as a formula; the import takes the ' off again.

What the rundown keeps

Imported back, the rundown gives the same titles, speakers, notes, lengths, days, starts, target times, and start modes, and the same labels unless one holds a comma, a semicolon, or a bar. The exceptions:

• Lengths are kept to the second.
• A timer without a day comes back with one when the rundown has any day, start, or target time.
• A target-time timer without a scheduled start comes back on the day of its target time, and one with a scheduled start comes back as a timer of the length from its start to its target time.
• With Start on their own, a start more than a day past comes back only when you move the days forward. With Keep the times, start by hand, every start comes back at its time.

Everything else, such as the appearance, wrap-up times, chimes, flashes, and time warp, is kept only in the room file.

What the room file keeps

The room file holds the room’s name, time zone, clock format, and default wrap-up times; every timer, in rundown order, with every setting of the timer dialog; and the messages, in their order. It leaves out:

• ids, since an import makes new ones;
• what is live: the timer playing, the message on the screens, and blackout;
• what the account holds rather than the room: the logo and screen theme, the screens’ password, Let API keys reach this room, the sponsor group, the event, and the room’s links, paired screens, and moderators.

Make a new room from a file

Pro and up

On the Rooms page, an admin finds New room from a file beside Create room. It takes a CSV, prepared as above, or a room file, and previews it in the same table, with the same questions, before the room exists.

1. Choose New room from a file. Under A CSV or a room file, choose the file, or paste it.
2. Check Name of the new room and Timezone.
   • A CSV’s room is named from its Room line, else from the file’s name without its extension, else “Imported rundown”, and is in its Time zone line’s zone, else your browser’s. You can change both.
   • A room file brings its own name, which you can change so the new room is not taken for the old one, and its own time zone.
3. Answer what the preview asks. A room file, or a sheet with days, offers Move the days to start on: another date moves every day, start, and target time by the same number of days, so last week’s show runs next week.
4. Choose Create with …, which says how many timers the room gets. The new room’s controller opens, its first timer cued and its scheduled starts set.

A room file brings the room’s settings and its messages too. When the file has more timers than a room holds on your plan, the new room keeps the first that fit, and the dialog names the rest, by their lines in a CSV or their number in a room file, before you choose Open controller. A file that is refused makes no room.