What is Excel?
Microsoft Excel is Microsoft's spreadsheet program and part of Microsoft Office. A spreadsheet is a digital calculation sheet. The software is widely used for financial calculations, but also in engineering and at PromoCat, among other things, to create product lists.
What is a CSV
A CSV file (comma-separated values) is a comma-separated file. A comma-separated file can consist of different variants, including a semicolon-separated file.
However, Excel isn't great at saving and opening these files, because there are so many options and Excel often opens the wrong character set. This results in a file with strange characters and typos. Below you'll find an explanation of how to open a CSV file with the UTF-8 character set (or another character set).
How do I open a CSV file with UTF-8 and semicolon-separated?
Step 1: Open Excel
Step 2: In Excel, search for "CSV" and you'll find "Gegevens ophalen uit tekst" (Get data from text).
Step 3: Click this and select the CSV file you want to open.
Step 4: A pop-up now opens; here you select "Gescheiden" (Delimited) and "Unicode (UTF-8)". Then click "Volgende" (Next).
Step 5: Select only "Puntkomma" (Semicolon) and "dubbele quotes" (double quotes). Then click "Volgende" (Next).
Step 6: Select "Standaard" (Standard) and click "Voltooien" (Finish).
Step 7: Finally, select the place where you want to open the data.
How do I save a CSV file with UTF-8 and semicolon-separated?
Step 1: Go to "Bestand" (File).
Step 2: Then go to "Opslaan als" (Save as) and choose "Deze pc" (This PC).
Step 3: Then choose "Meer opties..." (More options...).
Step 4: Choose a name and select "CSV UTF-8 (door komma's gescheiden)" (CSV UTF-8 (comma delimited)) as the file type.
Step 5: Under "Extra" (Tools), select the "Webopties" (Web Options) action.
Step 6: Navigate to "Codering" (Encoding) and, under "Dit document opslaan als" (Save this document as), select "Unicode (UTF-8)".
Step 7: Click "Ok" and then save the file.
