What syncing is, and when to use it
An export gives you today's copy of a view. A sync keeps a copy up to date on its own: every day, week or month Zite refreshes the file, and whoever uses it always sees current data without anyone logging in to Zite and exporting.
That matters when the data view feeds something outside Zite — a dashboard a donor looks at, a spreadsheet a partner works from, a reporting tool your M&E team uses. Set the sync up once and stop sending files around.
A view can be synced to two kinds of destination, and you can use one or both:
A Google Sheet. Zite creates a spreadsheet in a Google Drive folder you choose and rewrites it on schedule. Best for people who live in spreadsheets: they open the sheet, build their charts and pivots on it, and the numbers refresh underneath them.
A link (an "API link"). Zite publishes the view as a file at a private web address. Tools such as Excel, Power BI or Looker Studio can be pointed at that address and pull the latest data themselves — no Google account needed. Best when a dashboard or another system should fetch the data.
Both use the same schedule, set in the same window. The next page opens it; then follow the page for the destination you want.