How to set character encoding when opening a CSV file in Excel?

Question

Is it possible to set the default encoding for Excel (any version, e.g. 2010) when opening files like csv files (like you can in Open Office Calc)?

I When I try to open a csv file encoded in Japanese SHIFT-JIS, it opens but with mojibake (corrupted characters). In Open Office Calc, if you click on a csv file with a non-standard encoding like SHIFT-JIS, it automatically opens a dialog where you can set the encoding.

score 134 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 27 '11 at 15:32

134

Use the import function under "Data" tab where Excel allows us to specify the encoding. Select "from text" and choose your csv file then Select Japanese shift-jis encoding.

answered Jun 27 '11 at 15:32

prp

1,372

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '11 at 09:09

The following steps work with Office 2003.

Rename .csv to .txt
Open .txt file from Excel (don't do it with right click on file then open with Excel), Excel will open a Text Import Wizard dialog, ask ask for the format of .txt file, including character encoding of text file.
Rename .txt back to .csv after your edit is finished.

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 06 '16 at 11:43

On Excel 2016 for Mac:

create blank worksheet,
in main menu go to Data -> Get External Data -> Import Text File,
follow steps in wizard - choose the encoding until you will see the correct preview and on the next step choose columns delimiter (delimiters differ from csv to csv files).

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 10 '11 at 17:31

See if this helps (MS Excel 2007 and above).

Open Excel and click the Microsoft Orb at the top and then click on Excel Options.
Go to Advanced, and then look for the Web Options button. It should be under General.
Go to the Encoding tab and pick Japanese Shift-JIS from the drop-down menu. Click Ok, restart Excel and try to open your file.

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 21 '12 at 05:50

Lozzer provided great feedback in the small print: "If I set the default editing language to Japanese, then the SHIFT-JIS csv file will open correctly...."

I have spent hours looking for a solution on how to open Japanese CSV with one simple click We have a multi-language environment (En-Jp).

Even though Excel showed Japanese menus (based on the control panels language settings), the default editing setting in File > Options > Language > Choose Editing Language (Top area) remained English. Changing that to Japanese (obviously no issue for Japanese users) solved our problem.

How to set character encoding when opening a CSV file in Excel?

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