Applies to: EverWebinar

You can upload a CSV file to quickly add multiple chat messages to an EverWebinar event. Preloaded chat messages appear during the automated webinar and help simulate live audience interaction.

You can also add chat messages manually, but importing a CSV file is the fastest way to upload large numbers of messages.

Upload a CSV chat file

Edit the webinar.
Go to the Live step.
Open the Live chat box module and choose the Enable live chat option.
Click Import from CSV and upload your chat file.

You can upload multiple CSV files if needed.

Pro tip: You can download the chat file from a WebinarJam live event and upload it to EverWebinar. The WebinarJam CSV file is already formatted correctly for EverWebinar.

CSV formatting requirements

Resource: Download a CSV Chat Template

Each row in the CSV file represents a single chat message.

The file must contain exactly seven columns in the following order:

Column	Description	Value
Hour	Hour when the message appears	00-7
Minute	Minute when the message appears	00-59
Second	Second when the message appears	00-59
Name	Name displayed for the. message	Text
Role	Role of the sender	Admin or Attendee
Message	Chat message text	Text
Mode	Message type	For attendee: Chat, Question, Answer For admin: Chat, Question, Answer, Highlighted, Tip

Example of the correct format:

When the spreadsheet is complete, export or save it as a CSV file with UTF-8 encoding before uploading it to EverWebinar.

File upload limits

Each uploaded chat file must meet these limits:

Maximum 5,000 chat lines per file
Maximum 1 MB file size

These limits help maintain good performance during the webinar.

If your file exceeds these limits:

Split the file into multiple files with 5,000 lines or fewer.
Ensure each file is under 1 MB.
Upload the files individually using the Import from CSV option.

Pro tip: If you activate the "Save real comments" option, real chat lines will be added to the EverWebinar session in addition to your pre-loaded chat after you approve them under Log > Pending Chat section. There is no limit to the number of real comment lines captured.

File upload errors

If a CSV file fails to upload, EverWebinar will display an error message indicating the row that needs correction.

Common errors include:

Error message	Cause
Row column count is not 7	The row has more or fewer than seven columns
Role is invalid	Role must be Admin or Attendee
Type is invalid	Row must have the type as text, question, answer, tip, or highlighted
Hour is invalid	Hour must be between 0 and 7
Minute is invalid	Minute must be between 0 and 59
Second is invalid	Second must be between 0 and 59
UTF issue	Row must contain a message with valid UTF-8 encoding
Name issue	Row must contain a name that does not exceed 100 characters

If an error appears

Open your CSV file.
Locate the row referenced in the error message.
Correct the formatting issue.
Save the file again with UTF-8 encoding.
Upload the file again.

Upload a TXT file instead of CSV

If your CSV file cannot be uploaded, you can upload a TXT file using the same structure.

Convert a CSV file to TXT

Open the CSV file in a text editor such as Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac).
Save the file with the .TXT extension.

The TXT file must follow the same structure as the CSV file.

Requirements:

The file must contain seven columnsin this order:
- Hour, Minute, Second, Name, Role, Message, Mode
Each column must be separated by a comma (,)
Do not add spaces before or after commas
If a message contains commas or special characters, wrap the message in double quotes.
You do not need quotes if the message contains only letters, numbers, and spaces.