Sometimes, downloaded CSV files can show converted characters (e.g., dashes '-' turn into Äî). This happens when your default application to open a CSV file is Microsoft Excel which sets your setting to Macintosh format instead of UTF-8.
There are several ways to ensure your file opens in UTF-8:
- Convert the file to UTF-8 in Excel (2 methods available)
- Open the file in Google Sheets
Options 1 and 2: Convert to UTF-8 in Excel
The following is the default method of importing a CSV into Excel. This will correctly parse any special characters, but it does not always correctly format CSV files when there are line breaks within a single cell of data.
- Download the desired CSV in Lattice.
- Create a New file in Excel.
- Navigate to File > Import > CSV File.
- Select the downloaded file and select Get Data.
- For the data type, select Delimited.
- For the file origin, select Unicode (UTF-8).
- Add Comma as Delimiter and select Finish.
If you use the above method and data is still appearing incorrectly with rows and columns not lining up as expected, the following is an alternate method to import a CSV into Excel that will always correctly format cells with line breaks.
- Download the desired CSV in Lattice.
- Create a New file in Excel.
- Choose Data tab > Get Data (Power Query) > Text/CSV > Browse, then choose file you exported from Lattice.
- Select the options: File Origin = Unicode (UTF-8), Delimiter = Comma, Data type detection = Based on first 200 rows
- Click Load.
- Data will be formatted with row highlighting.
Option 3: Open in Google Sheets
- Download the Calibration CSV.
- Within Google Sheets, navigate to File > Import > Upload.
- Drag the downloaded file into the uploader.
- Select the options: Import location = Replace spreadsheet, Separator type = Comma, uncheck "Convert text to numbers".
- Click Import data.
- Data will populate in Google Sheets. From here you can edit or export as Excel.