User Manual: CSV Importer: Saving Files as CSV

Owned by Megan Forbes
Last updated: Jul 30, 2024 by Kristina Spurgin
2 min read

Data from LibreOffice Calc, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and other spreadsheet programs can be saved in the .csv format. Ensure that you save files with UTF-8 character encoding.

Tip: If you used the GitHub generated template, be sure to delete Rows 1-7 and Column A before saving as CSV / uploading to the CSV Importer.

LibreOffice Calc (recommended, available here)

  • From an open spreadsheet, select File > Save As > File type: Text CSV

    • Check the Edit filter settings box

    • Click save

  • A settings dialog box will open. Make sure the settings are as shown:

    Character set is Unicode (UTF-8). Field delimiter is comma. String delimiter is double quote. Save cell content as shown is checked. Quote all text cells is checked.

  • If you have more than one sheet, only the active sheet will be saved as CSV

  • Tip: LibreOffice is a free open-source application, and it handles international character sets and CSV files much better than Excel. It also does not “helpfully” change the format of your dates, change non-dates to dates, remove “decimals” from identification number strings, or convert ISBNs to scientific notation number format.
    If you’re not a regular user of LibreOffice, you can always create spreadsheets in the program of your choice, save, open in LibreOffice Calc, and then convert to CSV from there.

Microsoft Excel

  • From an open spreadsheet, select File > Save As > Comma Separated Values (.csv)

  • You may choose CSV UTF-8 or Microsoft CSV

  • If you have more than one sheet, only the active sheet will be saved as CSV

Google Sheets

  • From an open spreadsheet, select File > Download > Comma Separated Values (CSV)

  • If you have more than one sheet, only the active sheet will be downloaded as CSV