Encoding your Excel files into a UTF format (UTF-8) can help to ensure anything you upload into Validis can be read and displayed properly. This is crucial when working with foreign or special characters in Email Campaigns, Login/Password Actions, Contacts Lists, Data Import and Text and Translations. All of those features have the ability to receive CSV file uploads.
There are a few different ways to get the proper UTF encoding so we will go over how to do this in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice, Google Sheets and MAC OS. Since Google Sheets is also a widely used spreadsheet application, this article will also explain a UTF-8 encoding.
What is UTF-8 encoding?
A character in UTF-8 can be from 1 to 4 bytes long. UTF-8 can represent any character in the Unicode standard and it is also backward compatible with ASCII as well. It is the most preferred encoding for e-mail and web pages. It is the dominant character encoding for the worldwide web.
Here is a sample below:
Sample: Unencoded UTF-8 spreadsheet
How to Encode your Excel Files
Please follow the step-by-step instructions on how to encode your Excel files to UTF-8.
Depending on your version of Excel, you may be able to encode your file to UTF-8 during the Save As process. This will depend on your Excel version as well as whether you are using a Mac or PC.
Saving a CSV file as UTF-8 in Microsoft Excel for PC:
1.Open the CSV file with Microsoft Excel. 2. Navigate to the File menu option and click Save As. The window appears as shown below:
3.Click Browse to select a location to save the file. 4. The Save As window appears as shown below:
5.Next, enter the name of the file. 6.Select the Save as type as CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) option. 7.Click Tools drop-down box and click Web Options. A new window for web options appears as shown below:
8.Under the Encoding tab, select the option Unicode (UTF-8) from Save this document as: drop-down list. 9.Finally, click Ok, and save the file.
Saving a CSV file as UTF-8 in Microsoft Excel for MAC:
While there is not an option for UTF-8 encoding a CSV in older versions of Excel for Mac, an up to date version of Excel makes this fairly straightforward.
1. Click File > Save As. 2.You will see the Save dialog box. Via the File Format dropdown menu, select the CSV UTF-8 option.
3. Click, Save.
Saving a CSV file as UTF-8 using Libre Office:
To save a CSV file as UTF-8 encoded, follow the steps below:
- Open LibreOffice and go to Files from the menubar. Click on open and select the file from the computer that you want to save as a UTF-8 encoded file.
- After opening the file go to File > Save as. From the dialog box that opens, type the name of the file and select Text CSV (.csv) from the Save as type drop-down.
- Check the Edit filter settings options.
- Click on Save.
- From the Export Text File dialog box that appears, select the Unicode (UTF-8) option from the Character set drop-down.
Set the field and text delimiter as you wish or leave as is.
- Click OK.
This will save the file as UTF-8 encoded in Libre Office.
Saving a CSV file as UTF-8 using Google Spreadsheet:
To save the CSV file as UTF-8 encoded, you can upload the file on Google Drive and easily store it as UTF-8. The steps are as given below:
- First, open your Google Drive account. Click on the NEW button on the top left corner, and click Upload files option.
- Browse for the required CSV file and start uploading it.
- Open the uploaded file with Google Spreadsheet.
- Navigate to File > Download as, and select Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet) option.
The downloaded file gets saved as UTF-8 encoded by default and can be imported correctly when uploaded into our product import-export plugin.