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Import events from a spreadsheet

Bring your events into Ovante from a CSV file, with their dates, places, descriptions, tags, a ticket, and photos from links. You check every event before it comes in, and you can undo the import.

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If your events live in a spreadsheet, or another platform can export them, you can bring them all into Ovante at once. Each row becomes an event with its page, its first ticket and its photos.

Import your events

  1. 1
    Go to Settings → Import and export and click Events. With no events yet, Import events is also on your empty Events page.
  2. 2
    Drop a CSV file in, or click Choose file. Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets all save a sheet as CSV. Download a sample gives you a file to start from.
  3. 3
    On Review, check the columns on the left. Ovante guesses which column is which from its name; change any that's wrong, or pick Don't import.
  4. 4
    Pick the Time zone for rows that don't name one, and the Listing: Public puts the events on your calendar, Unlisted keeps them reachable by their link only.
  5. 5
    Look over the events on the right. Needs a fix lists the rows that can't come in and why.
  6. 6
    Click Import. Keep the drawer open while the events go in and their photos come in.

What the file can have

Only an event name and a start date and time are needed. Column names can be anything, in any order.

  • Event name.
  • Start date and Start time, or one column with both, like 3/13/2026 7:00 PM. Dates read month first; a date like 13/03/2026 reads day first because there's no 13th month.
  • End date and End time. Without an end, an event runs two hours. An end time earlier than the start runs past midnight.
  • Time zone, like America/Chicago, Eastern or PST.
  • Venue and Address, or an Online link for an online event.
  • Description, as plain text. Line breaks are kept, and markup from a website export is removed.
  • Banner photo and Gallery photos: links to the images. Gallery photos can be in one column, separated by commas, or in several columns. An event takes up to 12.
  • Tags, separated by commas.
  • Ticket name, Ticket price and Tickets available. Each event gets one ticket; without these columns it's a free General admission ticket with no limit. Add more tickets on the event's Tickets page afterwards.

Photos

Ovante downloads each photo from its link and keeps a copy in your photo library, so the events keep their photos even if the original site goes away.

  • The link has to open without signing in. A Google Drive file shared with "Anyone with the link" works, and so does a Dropbox link.
  • Each photo can be up to 5 MB, in JPEG, PNG, WebP or GIF.
  • A photo that doesn't come in is listed at the end with the reason. The event comes in without it; add the photo from the event's Edit event.

Rows that are skipped

  • No name, Can't read the date or No start time: fix the row in your file.
  • Can't read the price or Can't read tickets available: the cell has to be a number, or empty. Free reads as a free ticket.
  • Already in Ovante or Same as an earlier row: an event with the same name and start time is already there, so importing a file twice doesn't make duplicates.
  • Over the Free plan: Free keeps 3 upcoming events live at a time. Past events have no limit.
  • Over today's limit: an organization can import a set number of events a day. Import the rest the next day.

Fix the rows in your file and import it again. Events that already came in are skipped the second time.

Undo an import

The last screen of the import has Undo import, and so does the import's line in History on Settings → Import and export. It deletes every event the import added. An event someone has registered for since stays. After you close the drawer, delete an imported event like any other: see Delete an event.

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Updated Nov 13, 2026

Related

Create an eventFill in the name, when, where and a first ticket, and click Create event. The page is live at its link straight away, listed where you picked, on the Standard page.Add a photo galleryShow photos from past events on your event page, each with a caption, on every page style. Turning the gallery off hides it and keeps the photos.The photo libraryEvery image your team uploads goes into one library to reuse, from banners and gallery photos to logos and host photos. Removing a photo hides it; pages using it keep it.Tag your eventsPut your own tags on events, like Shabbat or Young professionals. Your calendar page shows them as chips above the events, and a visitor picks one to see only those events.Who can see and registerYour event's page works at its link from the moment you create it. Calendar decides where it's listed, and each ticket decides who can buy it.Set the date, time and time zoneEvery event runs in its own time zone. Guests in that zone see plain times; guests elsewhere see the zone named after the times.
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