Your sections, pre-filled and ready to edit
“Download my sections” gives you a real spreadsheet with every section already filled in — one row each on a Sections sheet, one row per hotspot on a Hotspots sheet, joined by a stable Experience ID — plus an optional Assignments sheet listing which products and collections show each section. Change only the cells you want.
- Everything that matters is a column — title, layout, style preset, status, grid columns, gap, image ratio, each hotspot’s product, position and buttons, and where each section appears.
- Products by handle, variants by SKU — the same names you see in product URLs and your inventory, never machine IDs. Pasting a product URL works too.
- No column explosion — the long tail of advanced settings folds into tidy “Advanced (JSON)” cells, so the sheet stays readable instead of sprawling to hundreds of columns.
- Leave a cell blank to keep it — blank advanced cells never wipe your styling; they mean “leave exactly as-is.”
- Round-trips perfectly — download and re-upload with no edits and nothing changes. What comes out is exactly what goes back in.
Built-in guardrails — invalid input becomes impossible
This isn’t a raw CSV you can quietly break. The workbook comes with dropdowns and number limits baked in, so most mistakes can’t even be typed.
- Dropdowns for every choice — layout, hotspot type, status, and your own style presets are pick-lists, not free text.
- Number guards — coordinates stay 0–100, columns 2–6, gaps within range, right in the cell.
- Every handle and SKU is verified — a typo’d product handle or a SKU that matches nothing (or two things) is caught in the dry run, named by row and column.
- Read-only keys — the Experience ID and Hotspot ID columns are reference keys the app checks on upload, so a row can’t silently land on the wrong section or hotspot.
- Add hotspots by adding rows — leave the Hotspot ID blank and a brand-new hotspot is created; existing ones keep their analytics history.
A dry run before anything goes live
Upload your edited file and Hotspot Studio runs it through the exact same checks as the visual editor — without saving anything. You get a plain-language report first.
- Pinpoint errors — every problem is reported by sheet, row and column: “Hotspots row 14, Desktop X must be 0–100.” Fix in place, re-upload.
- See what will happen — a per-section summary: update, publish, unpublish, archive, skip — plus hotspots added or removed, before you commit. Sections that already match the file are left untouched.
- Nothing changes until you confirm — one button applies it, and only when the file is clean.
- Safe by section — if one section has an error the rest still apply; a bad row never takes down a good one.
Minutes, not an afternoon of clicking
Restyle in bulk
Switch fifty sections to a new seasonal preset by changing one column — no opening each section by hand.
Retarget products
Point hotspots at this season’s SKUs across your whole catalog in one pass, then re-publish together.
Publish a launch at once
Flip a whole campaign of sections from Draft to Published the moment it goes live — set the Status column and upload.
Tidy up seasonally
Archive last season’s sections in bulk, rename for clarity, and keep your library clean.
Audit at a glance
A single spreadsheet is the fastest way to see every section, layout, preset and status side by side.
Move between stores
Export from a dev store, import to production — or clone a proven setup for a second market. Sections arrive as drafts, images re-uploaded (and reused on a re-import, never duplicated), products and assignments matched by handle.
Three steps
Download
Open Bulk edit in the app and download all your sections, pre-filled with their current settings.
Edit
Open it in Excel or Google Sheets. Change what you want using the built-in dropdowns and limits.
Upload & confirm
Upload, review the dry-run report, and apply. Your storefront updates in one go.
Three sheets to edit, joined by one ID
Every section is one row on Sections. Every hotspot is one row on Hotspots, tied to its section by Experience ID and its image by Image #. The optional Assignments sheet lists which products, variants or collections show each section — a section with rows there is set to exactly them; one without keeps its current assignments. You only fill the cells you want to change — blank cells keep what’s already there. Two more sheets ride along, read-only: Media (your images’ URLs, used when moving to another store) and Reference (the dropdown lists).
📄 “Sections” sheet · one row per section
- Experience ID
- Read-only key that identifies the section. Don’t change it.
- Action
updateto apply the row, orskipto leave that section untouched.- Title
- The section name.
- Status
PUBLISHEDshows it live ·DRAFThides it ·ARCHIVEDremoves it. Blank keeps the current status.- Layout
- Single, Grid, Masonry, Editorial, Collage or Carousel (dropdown).
- Preset
- A style preset by name (dropdown of your presets). Blank uses your default.
- Columns · Gap · Image ratio…
- Layout tuning — column count, gap and image ratio — with number limits built in.
- Advanced (JSON)
- The long tail — style tweaks, overlays, backgrounds, upsells — in tidy JSON cells. Blank leaves them exactly as-is.
🎯 “Hotspots” sheet · one row per hotspot
- Experience ID · Image #
- Which section and which image this hotspot sits on.
- Hotspot ID
- Read-only. Leave blank to add a new hotspot; existing IDs keep their analytics history.
- Type
- Product, Information or Link (dropdown).
- Desktop X / Y · Mobile X / Y
- Position as 0–100 (% across / down the image).
- Product · Variant
- The product’s handle (from its URL — pasting the URL also works) and, optionally, a variant’s SKU. IDs and GIDs are accepted too.
- Show price / add-to-cart / view
- Toggle the popup’s buttons.
- Title · Text · Link fields
- Info heading & body, or a link’s target, URL and label.
- Advanced (JSON)
- Frequently-bought-together, a sale, a rich description — as one JSON cell.
📍 “Assignments” sheet · optional · one row per placement
- Product
- Filled alone: that product’s page shows the section. Handle, URL, ID or GID — same as everywhere else.
- Product + Variant
- A variant’s SKU next to its product: the section shows only when that variant is selected.
- Collection
- A collection’s handle (or ID): every product in it shows the section. Leave Product/Variant blank on that row.
- No rows for a section?
- Its assignments stay exactly as they are — the sheet is opt-in per section, not required.
Each product, variant or collection can show one section — the dry run flags a file that assigns the same target to two sections instead of silently moving it.
🛍 The Product cell takes whatever you have at hand
linen-shirt- The handle — the last part of the product URL. The recommended form: it’s what the export writes.
https://…/products/linen-shirt- A pasted product URL — storefront or admin, both work.
10079785100- The numeric product ID from the admin URL.
LS-M-WHT· Variant cell- A variant’s SKU, matched only within that row’s product. Blank = the whole product.
Every reference is verified during the dry run — a typo can’t slip through, and a blank Product cell keeps the hotspot’s current product instead of clearing it.
Grey columns (Experience ID, Hotspot ID, Image reference) are read-only keys — the app fills them so your edits land on exactly the right section and hotspot. A hidden sheet fingerprints the file to its store: your own file updates your sections in place, while a file from another store is imported as new draft sections (images re-uploaded, products and assignments re-matched by handle) — it can never silently overwrite the wrong ones. Images are managed in the visual editor — the sheet edits everything around them.
Bulk-editing questions, answered
What happens if I make a mistake in a cell?
Nothing — literally. Every upload is checked first, and problems are reported by sheet, row and column (“Hotspots · row 14 · Product — no product ‘linnen-shirt’”). Until the file is clean, not a single change is saved.
Do my hotspots keep their analytics history?
Yes. Rows that keep their Hotspot ID update the existing hotspot in place, so its impressions, clicks and revenue attribution carry on uninterrupted. Only rows you add (blank ID) create new hotspots.
Can I edit in Google Sheets instead of Excel?
Yes — open the .xlsx in Google Sheets, edit, then File → Download → Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) and upload that. Dropdowns and number guards survive the trip.
Can I sort, filter or reorder rows while editing?
Freely. Rows are matched by Experience ID and Image #, never by their position — the header row even ships with filter buttons enabled.
Can I move sections to a different store with this file?
Yes — on any plan. Upload a workbook exported from another store — a dev store, a second market, a client’s shop — and Hotspot Studio imports its sections here as drafts: images are re-uploaded into this store (a re-import reuses them instead of duplicating), products, variants and assignments are re-matched by handle and SKU, and nothing goes live until you publish it yourself. Store-specific bits that can’t travel (a frequently-bought-together list, an internal link target) are dropped with a clear note in the report.
Can it change which products a section appears on?
Yes — the optional Assignments sheet lists one row per placement: a product (by handle), a variant (by SKU) or a whole collection. A section with rows there is set to exactly those placements; a section without rows keeps its current ones. It works in bulk updates and cross-store imports alike.
What can’t the spreadsheet change?
Images and videos — those stay in the visual editor, where you can see what you’re doing. Everything around them (titles, layouts, presets, statuses, products, hotspot positions, popups, where each section appears, advanced settings) is editable from the file.
Export & import on any plan · bulk-update with Growth
Downloading the workbook and importing it into another store are free for everyone — your data stays portable. Uploading it back to update your own store’s sections at once is part of Growth, the plan that also unlocks Shop-the-Look, Frequently-bought-together and automatic discounts.