To open a CSV file in Excel correctly, use the Data tab and the From Text/CSV button: in the preview you set UTF-8 encoding and the comma delimiter, and the data loads into columns with all special characters intact. Double-clicking the file often is not enough. Where your regional settings use the comma as the decimal separator, Excel expects a semicolon between columns and does not detect UTF-8 on its own, so everything ends up in one column and accented letters turn into odd symbols.

CSV (comma-separated values) is a plain text file in which every line is one row of a table and the values are separated by commas. You get a CSV file, for example, when you download completed surveys from Quanda or export contacts from a CRM or accounting system.

How to open a CSV file in Excel step by step

These steps apply to Excel in Microsoft 365 and to Excel 2016 and later on Windows.

  1. Open a blank workbook.
  2. On the Data tab, in the Get & Transform Data group, click From Text/CSV.
  3. Find the downloaded CSV file and click Import.
  4. In the preview, set File Origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8).
  5. Choose Comma as the Delimiter and check that the preview shows the data in columns.
  6. Click Load. Excel inserts the data as a table on a new sheet.
CSV import preview in Excel with UTF-8 encoding and the comma delimiter selected

How to keep leading zeros

During the import, Excel converts columns that look like numbers into numbers. Postal codes or phone numbers then lose their leading zero. The quickest fix is to set Data Type Detection to Do not detect data types in the import preview, so all columns load as text. To load only some columns as text, do this:

  1. In the import preview, click Transform Data instead of Load.
  2. Select the column, for example the postal code or phone number.
  3. Click the data type icon in the column header and choose Text.
  4. Click Close & Load.

How to open a CSV file in an older version of Excel

Older versions of Excel have the Text Import Wizard instead of the preview. You will find it on the Data tab under From Text.

  1. Select the CSV file and click Import.
  2. Choose the Delimited type and set File origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8).
  3. Click Next, tick the Comma delimiter and clear the other delimiters.
  4. Click Finish and choose where to put the data.
The first step of the Text Import Wizard in an older version of Excel with the Delimited option
The second step of the Text Import Wizard with the comma delimiter

How to open a CSV file in Excel on a Mac

On a Mac, choose Import from the File menu, select CSV file and then the file. The same wizard as in older Excel opens: choose Delimited, the Unicode (UTF-8) encoding and the Comma delimiter.

How to open a CSV file in Google Sheets

In Google Sheets, choose File, Import and select the CSV file on the Upload tab. Leave the separator type on Detect automatically, or choose Comma. Google Sheets reads UTF-8 files correctly without any further settings.

How to prepare a CSV file for import into Quanda

When you import an Excel sheet into Quanda, save it via File, Save As with the type CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited), or simply as xlsx. Quanda accepts both formats. The import itself is described in the Contact import guide, preparing the data in Export of contacts and preparation for their import. If the text displays incorrectly after the import, see how to fix the encoding.

Do you have questions? We will be happy to answer them. Just contact our customer support at +420 605 163 892, e-mail: support@onquanda.com.

Frequently asked questions

Excel takes the list separator from your regional settings. Where the comma is the decimal separator, as in most of Europe, Excel expects a semicolon between columns, so a comma-separated CSV opened by double-click ends up in one column. Open it via Data, From Text/CSV and choose the comma as the delimiter.

The file is saved in UTF-8, but Excel reads it in a different encoding when you double-click it. When importing via Data, From Text/CSV, set File Origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8) and accented characters display correctly.

In the import preview, click Transform Data, select the column, for example the postal code or phone number, and change its data type to Text. Then click Close & Load. Otherwise Excel converts the column to numbers and drops the leading zeros.

CSV files from Quanda, such as the export of completed surveys, separate columns with a comma and use UTF-8 encoding. When importing into Excel, choose the comma delimiter and the UTF-8 file origin.

In Excel, choose File, Save As and the file type CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). Quanda can also import an xlsx file, so you do not have to convert the sheet to CSV at all.

Yes. In Google Sheets, choose File, Import, Upload and leave the separator type on Detect automatically. LibreOffice Calc opens CSV files too and asks for the encoding and delimiter right away.