How do I properly use conditional formatting during the import process?
The import template catches badly formatted values before you upload anything. Paste into it the wrong way and you switch that off without noticing.
1. What the template checks
Conditional formatting is a spreadsheet feature that colours a cell when its contents fail a rule. Our template uses it on two columns:
- Date of Birth
Type sample@sample into the Email column and the cell turns red, because there is no .com on the end. Put a date in the wrong shape and the same thing happens. You see the problem in your own spreadsheet, before Vome ever sees the file.
Those are the two fields that cause the most failed imports, which is why they are the two that are checked.
The rules cover the first 1,000 rows. If you are importing more people than that, the rows below 1,000 are not checked and will look fine whether they are or not. Worth knowing on a big migration.
2. Why pasting breaks it
An ordinary paste brings the source cell's formatting with it and replaces what was in the template, rules included. The values look right, the colours never appear again, and nothing warns you.
So if you are copying emails or dates in from another file, paste them in a way that keeps the template's rules.
3. How to paste correctly
Before pasting into the Email or Date of Birth column:
- Select the cells and right click.
- Open the arrow for Paste Special.
- Choose Merge Conditional Formatting.
The values land, and the template's checking survives. Here it is end to end:
4. If you are not using the template
None of this applies. A CSV cannot carry conditional formatting at all, and a spreadsheet you built yourself has whatever rules you gave it. Your own file imports perfectly well, you simply do not get the early warning.
This is a convenience, not the real check. Vome validates your file on the Check file errors step no matter how it was built, and lists every problem with its row number. Conditional formatting just saves you a round trip.