How to Lay Out a Survey Spreadsheet for Conversion
Last updated 26 September 2026
Which headings are recognised, what to do with a sheet that has no heading row, and the small layout habits that stop points going missing.
The short version
One heading row, then one row per point. Give each column a plain heading such as STATION, EASTING, NORTHING and ELEVATION, and keep the numbers as numbers. Excel to KML finds the columns by their headings, so their order doesn't matter and extra columns are carried along.
Headings it recognises
Case, spaces and full stops are ignored, so “Pt. No” and “PTNO” are the same heading.
- Point number: Point Number, Point No, Pt No, Point, Sr No, S No
- Station name: Station, Stn, Name, BM, TBM
- Easting: Easting, East, E, X
- Northing: Northing, North, N, Y
- Level: Elevation, Elev, Level, RL, Z, Height
- Latitude and longitude: Latitude, Lat; Longitude, Long, Lon, Lng
- Code: Code, Feature Code, Feature, Type, Layer, Symbol, Class
- Notes: Remarks, Description, Source; Location, Area
- Photo file name: Photo, Picture, Image, Photo Name
Any other column — contractor, date, chainage — goes into the point's balloon in Google Earth and into the saved sheets.
A sheet with no heading row
Raw instrument downloads often start straight with numbers. When the first row has no headings, the program says so and lets you pick the column order: Point · Easting · Northing · Elevation, Point · Northing · Easting · Elevation, or the same without a point number or level. Pick the one that matches and check a point on the map.
Habits that avoid missing points
- Keep it to one table per sheet. Titles, logos and totals above or below the table get in the way of the heading row. Start the table in the first row.
- Numbers, not text. Thousands separators are fine, but units (“232379.158 m”) and notes typed into a coordinate cell are not. A row without a usable easting and northing is left out and counted in the status bar.
- Latitude and longitude in decimal degrees. A value like 25°12'30" must be converted first — see DMS to decimal degrees.
- Unique station names. Lines, photos and design comparisons match rows by station name, so two points both called “CP1” will confuse them.
- Use a code column if you want lines, areas or different markers — TREE, MH, BDY. See markers by point code.
Getting it in
In the web app or the Windows app, press Open (Ctrl+O) and choose the .xlsx, .xlsm or .csv file, drag it onto the window, or copy the rows in Excel — heading row included — and press Paste. In a workbook with several sheets, the first sheet with data is read and the activity log links to the others.
Old .xls files (Excel 97–2003) are not read directly: open them in Excel and save as .xlsx or CSV first.
Try it with your own sheet