Forum Discussion
Save as CSV file (UTF-8) with double quotes - how?
Hi I often need to save data as a CSV file (UTF-8) where all cells are surrounded by double quotes. I cannot find any way to do that in Excel - can it be true? Any idea how to do that?
I agree entirely with this. I have the same problem. The official Microsoft response to this is to build a macro that exports a CSV in the format you want it. I also find the justification that "this is the up to date guidance" to be a sloppy one, as when I use CSV I often require backwards compatibility to systems not using that guidance that require double quotes around each field. It takes no effort to add functionality to export as such within Excel.
My preferred solution as offered elsewhere is: download and install Open Office/Libre Office and use their inbuilt functionality for it. It will save you having to track down a Macro for it every time you need to do this.
Double quotes are needed when the text itself contains commas. Otherwise whatever is reading the file will not know correct field boundaries. It should really not be optional or at least Excel should offer it as an option during the saving as process. If MS continues to be immune to reason, then open office is the right choice.