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View, moderate, and export participation tool submissions
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Updated 2 months ago

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   **View participation tool submissions details and export them in a XLSX. format.**

When public users fill in a survey, a poll or make any other submission to a consultation, Civio Engage records their responses in a specific tab, accessible from your admin interface.

To view participation tool submissions
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1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to review. This will bring up a list of all participation tools available within this tool type.
4. Click on the participation tool to open it. This default screen is your participation tool dashboard.
5. Scroll down to view the **list of submissions**.

To navigate to the detail of an individual submission
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1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to review. This will bring up a list with all participation tools available within this tool type.
4. Click on the participation tool to open it. This default screen is your participation tool dashboard.
5. Scroll down to the **list of submissions**.
6. Select a submission by clicking on the **View** button. This will open a page with details of the submission, where you can view the user fields, moderate, track past revisions, and delete.

![](/storage/articles/10509603295375.png)

Moderation Options
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### Automatic Moderation

Automatic moderation streamlines the review process for public submissions by screening content against community guidelines before it goes live.

#### How it works

1. A community member submits content through a participation tool (e.g. an idea, a question, or map feedback).
2. The system automatically screens the submission for inappropriate language, offensive content, and spam.
3. If the submission **passes**, it is automatically **Published** and appears on the public site immediately.
4. If the submission **fails**, it is marked as **Rejected** and will not appear publicly.

![](/storage/articles/11197222303631.png)

#### What happens when a submission fails

A rejected submission is not permanently lost. When automatic moderation rejects a submission:

1. The submission appears in the tool's **Submissions** tab with a **Rejected** status.
2. Your team can open the submission by clicking **View** and review the content.
3. If you decide the submission should go live, you can manually change its status to **Published**.

This means automatic moderation acts as a first filter — your team always has the final say over whether a submission is published or stays rejected.

#### What is screened

Automatic moderation checks submissions for content that does not meet community guidelines, including:

- Inappropriate or offensive language
- Spam or irrelevant content
- Content that may breach community standards

Automatic moderation also applies to **comments on ideas** when commenting is enabled on an idea board.

#### Setting up automatic moderation

1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects** to view the projects you have access to.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to configure.
4. Open the participation tool and navigate to the **Edit** tab.
5. In the right-hand sidebar, find the moderation dropdown and select **Automatic moderation**.
6. Click **Save** or **Publish**.

#### Note

You can view all moderation activity — including whether a submission was auto-published, auto-rejected, or later manually overridden — by clicking the **Logs** tab in the submission details view.

### Manual Moderation

Ensure you have the appropriate permissions to moderate submissions. Check your [user role](/articles/9176861358095-User-roles) permissions to verify if you have moderation access of participation tools.

1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, click on the tool type for the submissions you want to review. This will bring up a list of all participation tools available within this tool type.
4. Click on the participation tool to open it and ensure your participation tool is set to **Manual Moderation**
5. Scroll down to the **list of submissions**.
6. Select a submission by clicking on the **View** button. This will open a page with details of the submission.
7. For tools with submissions that are visible to the public, such as idea boards and map feedback, there is an option to set the moderation to **Requires Approval.** In that situation, our automatic moderation service can review the submission to ensure it meets community guidelines before being published.
8. To manually moderate a submission, select from the list of submissions, and click **view**. From here, **Publish** or **Reject** the submission, and leave a revision message.

### Publish Immediately

For tools where submissions do not require a review process, you can set submissions to be **Publish Immediately**. This setting ensures that submissions are made public as soon as they are submitted, bypassing any moderation or approval steps.

1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects** to view your accessible projects.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. In the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, select the tool type for the submissions you want to configure.
4. Open the specific participation tool and set it to **Publish Immediately**. This will make submissions visible to the public as soon as they are submitted.

### Site Default:

Any of these moderation options as your site-wide default in [Settings](/articles/9175641395215-Settings). This means that when you create a new tool, the moderation setting will be pre-configured according to your default choice.

#### Note

You can also view the moderation activity logs by clicking the **Logs** tab in the submission details view

![Pasted_Image_21_8_2024__4_14 pm.png](/storage/articles/10509959891983.png)

Dashboard elements
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The participation tool dashboard consists of two main sections:

- A **submission graph** that shows the tool submissions overtime (this is a downloadable image)
- A **list overview** of all the tool submissions.

![participation.jpeg](/storage/articles/9194976866447.jpg)

To export the submission data from a participation tool
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1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. From the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, select a tool type.
4. Select a participation tool from the list. Click on the **ellipsis** on the right hand side of the listing.
5. Select **Export Submissions**.
6. The Excel download will automatically start. A confirmation message on the bottom of the screen will appear. You will receive an in-app notification when your download is ready.

To download submission attachments
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1. In the left-hand menu bar, click **Projects**. This will show you all projects you currently have access to.
2. Click on a project to open it.
3. From the project sub-menu, under **Participation**, select a tool type.
4. Select a participation tool from the list. Click on the **ellipsis** on the right-hand side of the listing.
5. Select **Download attachments**.
6. If there are any attachments associated with the submissions for the selected tool, they will be downloaded as a zip file containing all the relevant attachments.

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