• • • • • CSV files Despite all those choices (and hype about them from Microsoft), still the most common way to get information into Excel is the humble and long standing Comma Delimited Values files (.csv). It’s simply a plain text file. Each line is a new row/record with a comma to separate each value/cell from the next. Here’s a short.csv that we made:.CSV files are common because they are easy to make (any spreadsheet or database has an ‘Export to.csv’ option and programmer can easily code to make one), can be opened and viewed in any text editor and can’t contain viruses or other nasties. They are so common, anyone receiving a.csv should know how to handle it (no follow up questions about how to import the data).CSV can be very large but compress nicely in ZIP or RAR. They are called ‘comma delimited’ files but, as we’ll see, various characters can be used to separate values. Excel’s import wizard defaults to Tab as the separator.

1. Excel For Mac Text Import Wizard More Columns

Excel For Mac Text Import Wizard More Columns

Any character can be used as the separator but Tab, Comma or Semicolon are the most common. Excel can open.csv files directly. The.csv extension is associated with Excel so double-clicking on one will open it. Mac excel check for text contained in a cell. But that imports the data using the default settings and no control over any data conversion or typing. Safer The better and safer option is to import a.csv into a new or existing worksheet. This will give you some options to control the data conversion process.