Convert KML to CSV for Google Earth Placemarks and Excel

KML Holds Maps; CSV Holds Tables

KML (Keyhole Markup Language) stores placemarks, paths, and polygons for Google Earth and many mapping tools. Business teams still need those pins in Excel for territory planning, store lists, and CRM uploads. Converting KML to CSV flattens placemark names, descriptions, and coordinates into rows — ideal for US field teams, UK retail networks, Australian site surveys, and EU operations that live in spreadsheets.

KML vs KMZ vs GeoJSON

Know what you were sent.

Step-by-Step: KML → CSV

Placemark-oriented workflow.

• If you have KMZ, unzip it and locate the .kml document (often doc.kml).
• Open KML to CSV on Convert CSV Online.
• Preview rows: Name, description, longitude, latitude (and altitude if present).
• Confirm coordinate order for your destination system.
• Download CSV; clean descriptions (HTML in description is common).
• Optional: CSV to Excel for stakeholders, or join to other business keys.
• Keep the original KML if you still need paths/polygons visually in Earth.

<Placemark>
  <name>Store 12</name>
  <description>Open 9–6</description>
  <Point>
    <coordinates>-0.1276,51.5072,0</coordinates>
  </Point>
</Placemark>

name,description,longitude,latitude,altitude
Store 12,Open 9–6,-0.1276,51.5072,0

Coordinate Order and Sanity Checks

Same trap as GeoJSON: swapped lat/lon misplots cities.

• KML <coordinates> order is longitude, latitude, optional altitude.
• After conversion, spot-check a landmark you recognize on a map.
• UK national grid and other projected CRSs are not lon/lat — reproject in GIS first if your KML used a non-WGS84 workflow (uncommon in Earth exports, common in professional GIS).

Paths and Polygons

Not every KML geometry becomes one tidy CSV row.

• Point placemarks → one row each (best case).
• LineString paths → either skip, summarize (start/end), or explode vertices to many rows.
• Polygons → prefer GIS formats or WKT columns; centroid-only CSV loses boundaries.
• Folders: flatten placemarks; keep a folder/path column if the converter provides it.

Descriptions, HTML, and Extended Data

Earth users paste rich notes into descriptions.

• Strip or retain HTML depending on whether Excel consumers want tags.
• ExtendedData / SchemaData key-value pairs should become columns when present.
• UTF-8 matters for café names in Montréal, München, or São Paulo.
• Very long description cells: fine in CSV with quoting; awkward in Excel UI.

import csv
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

NS = {"kml": "http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2"}
root = ET.parse("places.kml").getroot()

with open("places.csv", "w", newline="", encoding="utf-8") as out:
    writer = csv.writer(out)
    writer.writerow(["name", "longitude", "latitude", "altitude"])
    for pm in root.findall(".//kml:Placemark", NS):
        name = (pm.findtext("kml:name", default="", namespaces=NS) or "").strip()
        coord = pm.findtext(".//kml:coordinates", default="", namespaces=NS) or ""
        parts = coord.strip().split(",")
        if len(parts) < 2:
            continue
        lon, lat = parts[0], parts[1]
        alt = parts[2] if len(parts) > 2 else ""
        writer.writerow([name, lon, lat, alt])

Round-Trip: CSV → KML

When ops updates a spreadsheet of sites and needs Earth again.

• Maintain columns name, longitude, latitude (or lat/lon — be consistent).
• Use CSV to KML to rebuild placemarks.
• You will not fully restore original styles, camera tours, or network links from a simple attribute CSV.
• Validate a few pins in Google Earth after re-import.

Excel and CRM Handoffs

After KML to CSV, treat coordinates as numbers and store IDs as text.

• European Excel: import comma CSV via the wizard if semicolons are default.
• Join store_id keys carefully — Earth names are often not unique.
• Power BI / Tableau: assign geo roles to lat/lon after load.
• See GeoJSON to CSV when your source is a web FeatureCollection instead of Earth.

Common Mistakes

Map-room frequent flyers.

• Trying to convert KMZ without unzipping.
• Swapping lat and lon in CRM imports.
• Expecting polygon territory files to become one row per region with full boundaries in two columns.
• Editing coordinates in Excel with low precision and writing them back.
• Assuming folder structure survives a flat CSV.

Best Practices

Pins in CSV; rich geometry in KML/GeoJSON.

• Use KML to CSV for placemark attribute tables.
• Keep authoritative geometry in KML/KMZ/GeoJSON.
• Label lon/lat columns unambiguously.
• QA with known landmarks after every conversion.
• Version source KML alongside exported CSV.

Why Use Convert CSV Online?

Convert CSV Online is free, browser-based, and requires no account for everyday conversions. KML to CSV extracts placemark tables for Excel; CSV to KML rebuilds pins from spreadsheets. GeoJSON tools cover web-map twins. Client-side workflows fit US, UK, Canadian, Australian, and EU teams on Windows, macOS, and Linux browsers.

Conclusion

KML to CSV turns Earth placemarks into spreadsheet rows when you respect lon/lat order and treat paths/polygons as special cases. Use it for pins and attributes; keep KML when the map itself is the deliverable.