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Excel for Mac not opening UTF-8 CSV files correctly.

Anonymous
2018-12-26T03:55:46+00:00

It’a almost 2019, and Excel for Mac still cannot open UTF-8 CSV files without using some type of workaround? Why, why, why?

Why can’t I just double click a file and have it open without displaying garbage characters?

Why isn’t UTF-8 default on all applications?

Is this too much to ask?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-12-26T06:56:11+00:00

    Hi Ivan,

    Based on my test MacOS 10.14.2, Excel version 16.20 (181208), when I save a worksheet as CSV file, then open the CSV file with double click. The worksheet will show a notification as below.

    If so, for the warning about potential data loss scenario, please refer to this article:

    Excel formatting and features that are not transferred to other file formats.

    For importing CSV files into Excel, instead of opening it directly, you should use the Import Wizard, and choose Unicode (UTF-8) as File Origin, and Comma for the delimiter.

    If this is not your scenario, could you please provide the information below?

    1. Did you received any error message？If so, please provide a screenshot for it.
    2. The Version of your MacOS and Excel:

    For MacOS: Click Apple menu > about this Mac

    For Excel: Click Excel menu > About Microsoft Excel.

    By the reason why UTF-8 doesn't default on the applications, according to this article File formats supported in Excel for Mac, if you use Excel 2016 for Mac, you can change the file origin to be default UTF-8.

    There are steps below:

    1. Open Excel and open a new workbook.

     2. Go to Excel>Preferences>Sharing and Privacy>Compatibility.

     3. On the Save files in this format menu, select the format you want to use.

    You can also take a look at Change the file format for saving workbooks in Excel for Mac.

    ( Update by Clark Wang at 2019/01/02 14:50PM UTC+8 )

    Regards，

    Clark

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-12-28T06:43:32+00:00

    Hi Ivan,

    May I know have you browsed my post? Please let us know if you need further assistance.

    Regards,

    Clark

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