# Timeline to spreadsheet

**URL:** <https://gramps.discourse.group/t/timeline-to-spreadsheet/3230>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** timeline\
**Created:** [January 31, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/timeline-to-spreadsheet/3230 "2023-01-31T20:35:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![trlvn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/gramps.discourse.group/trlvn/32/1148_2.png) [@trlvn](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/trlvn)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/timeline-to-spreadsheet/3230/1 "2023-01-31T20:35:30Z")

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Gramps 5 on macOS

The Quick View - Timeline has a lot of good information but sometimes I’d like to get it into a spreadsheet for analysis. But that seems to be pretty difficult.

The best I’ve found is:

-bring up a Timeline like the following

 ![QuickView Timeline Thomas 1789](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/gramps/original/2X/e/ec01488bb6b914b6d4e46eeacb87a983e9a733af.png)

-right click and Select All  
-switch to a text editor and paste  
-save the file as a csv  
-switch to a spreadsheet program and import the csv file  
=Problem is that the commas embedded in the various fields cause the spreadsheet to split the data quite differently from how it was displayed in the Timeline view.

Is there a better approach?

Craig

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**Author:** ![GeorgeWilmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@GeorgeWilmes](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/GeorgeWilmes)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2023, 10:00pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/timeline-to-spreadsheet/3230/2 "2023-01-31T22:00:37Z")

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> [@trlvn](#):
>
> Is there a better approach?

Maybe a feature request to add an “Age” column to the Events category view? Then you could just do a CSV export from that view. Such export already includes quotes around the columns that contain commas.

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**Author:** ![GeorgeWilmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@GeorgeWilmes](https://gramps.discourse.group/u/GeorgeWilmes)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://gramps.discourse.group/t/timeline-to-spreadsheet/3230/3 "2023-01-31T23:02:10Z")

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> [@GeorgeWilmes](#):
>
> an “Age” column to the Events category view

Actually, I guess that suggestion wouldn’t work. It would have to be calculated as the age of the primary person in each event, and in the case of events such as marriage which have more than one primary person, then it couldn’t be calculated.