4HOnline HelpSheet

Exporting Data from 4HOnline to Excel

You can export any report information from 4HOnline to XLS. Which report you choose to use depends only on the information (fields) that you want. I created and shared a report that includes all the common fields that would be used when setting up a county fair database, called “Member List – Export for Fair Info (Shared)”.

In order for you to gain “ownership” of the report so that you can make changes, you must first use the “Copy” button. Only use “Copy” once, then you can make changes to the report by using the “Run” button.

Step One – Copy the report, rename, and verify fields included


Click on the Report icon, then on “Custom Enrollment”, and locate “Member List – Export for Fair Info (Shared)” (or whatever other report format you wish to export). If you have not yet made a copy of that report, choose the Copy button. (If you HAVE previously copied the report, just “Run” your copy.)


Start with the “Reports” link across the top.

Name your report something logical and descriptive. Remember that it’s going to show up in the Custom Enrollment list alphabetically.Add text to the Description field that would help you (or others) know something about the purpose of the list or how to use it.

Look at the list of fields on the right to verify that the fields you need are listed there. If they are NOT, you will locate them on the left list, and use the > button to move them over. You can CTL-click highlight more than one field from the list and move them all at once.

Three tabs contain all the fields for enrollment: Profile, Additional, and Participation. Profile contains the Enrollment, Family, and Member tables. Additional contains only Iowa-defined additional fields. Participation contains the Activity, Award, Club, Group, and Project tables. (See “4HOnline Tables & Fields” for a list of all fields in each table.)

Rearrange the order of the fields by highlighting them in the right-side list and then using the “Move up” and “Move down” buttons.When you’re satisfied with the fields and their order, CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON. All changes made on this screen are temporary until saved.

Select the Standard Filters link.
Set your filters for the youth records that you wish to export. In terms of the county fair, that would probably be “Primary Club Only”, “Youth”, “Active”, and grades 4-12 as shown below. However, you can make changes on the standard filters screen if you wish.


When you’re satisfied with the selection, CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON. All changes made on this screen are temporary until saved.

For more information about Filters (Standard and Custom), see the Helpsheet “Create a New Report”.


Grid View
You can “preview” the records/fields that are included in your report in Grid View. If you need additional information (fields) that are not included, go back to the Report screen to add those (see above). If all information is correct, use the Quick Exports option at the top of the screen to pull down to “Grid List”.

Save as Excel

  1. If you are using Firefox, you will see the dialog box at right. You can choose either option; I always choose “Open” and then “Save As…” from inside Excel.

  2. The file opens as shown below. Notice the little green triangles in the upper left corners of the contents of the Zip and Grade columns. When you hover over them, you’ll see that Excel thinks they’re numbers, but the fields were actually text fields in 4HOnline.
  1. Highlight the contents of the column (not including the header in row 1) and click on the “!” icon to see the menu of options. Choose “Convert to Number”. NOTE: this ONLY works for grades 1-12, as Kindergarten is a text string.


  1. Clean it up:
  2. Removerow 2 (squooshed and blank), any blank columns, and field borders.
  3. Change the column headers to match Filemaker fields (if you’re importing this into Filemaker).
  1. Import to Filemaker (if necessary).