DocsExporting

Exporting your data

A sorted grid becomes research the moment it leaves the browser. Copy puts it on your clipboard; Export writes a file. Both carry the numbers, the links and the captions.

Copy

Copy takes the grid exactly as it stands, filters included, and puts it on your clipboard as rows and columns. Paste into Google Sheets or Excel and it lands as a proper table rather than as one long line of text.

It's the fastest route into a spreadsheet you already have open, which is usually a swipe file you're adding to rather than a new sheet.

Export

Export opens a menu of four formats, and its label carries a live count so you always know how many rows you're about to write.

Google Sheets creates a formatted spreadsheet in your own Drive and opens it.
Excel writes an .xlsx file, ready to open.
CSV writes a plain comma-separated file, for importing anywhere.
JSON writes the raw records, for anyone piping this into something else.

What's in the columns

The schema follows the platform, because the platforms publish different things. Every export leads with the creator and a full link to the post, so a row is always something you can click.

Instagram

A Reels export carries Profile, Reel, Create Date, Views, Likes and Comments. A Posts export carries Profile, Post, Create Date, Likes, Comments and Caption.

Saved changes this slightly, because Instagram reports different things there. A Saved export adds a Views column, and All Posts drops Comments since Instagram leaves those blank on that surface.

TikTok

Profile, TikTok, Create Date, Views, Likes, Shares, Comments, Saves and Caption. It's the widest schema of the four, which is what makes TikTok the easiest platform to analyse in a spreadsheet.

Facebook

Profile, Reel, Create Date, Views, Likes, Comments and Captions.

YouTube

Channel, Video, Publish Date, Views, Likes, Duration, Category, Title and Description. Duration and Description are unique to YouTube and worth having: a searchable description column turns a sheet into a real archive.

Two extra columns

Outlier Score appears automatically, right after Views, when the sort computed scores. It's the same multiple the card shows, so a sheet can be re-sorted on it later. Outlier score explains the number.

Transcript appears when the rows carry transcripts, which happens when you run Export + Transcripts from Select mode. That's the column that makes a research sheet searchable by what was said. Transcribing videos covers it.

Exporting a subset

Export writes whatever is on screen, so filtering first is a legitimate way to narrow it. Anything the Filters panel removes is not in the file.

For a hand-picked set, use Select. Tick the posts you want and the same four formats apply to those alone, in the order you picked them. After you sort covers Select mode.

Exporting saved posts

Your saved posts on the web export in the same four formats, from a collection, a creator, or a selection. The columns are the usual post ones, with transcripts when you've run them. Your saved posts covers it.

File names

Files are named after what you sorted and how many rows came back, so a folder of exports stays readable months later. On a multi-creator surface such as Saved or a collection, the name follows the collection rather than one account.

If the spreadsheet is the destination rather than a step, Google Sheets skips the file entirely and builds the sheet for you.