Many utilities will never have to think about what encoding format they save CSV files in. However, if you want to display and export characters used by languages other than English (for example, ø,ü, é, å, ê,ß, etc.), use UTF-8 encoding.
Why UTF-8
UTF-8 supports all unicode characters, whereas encoding formats such as ISO 8859-1 support far fewer characters. That said, if you only need to display text in English, you can encode your CSV files in any of UTF-8, UTF-8-SIG, ISO 8859-1 and ASCII.
See Wikipedia and Stack Overflow for more information about UTF-8, UTF-8-SIG, ISO 8859-1 and ASCII.
How to Save a CSV File in UTF-8 Format
Methods for saving UTF-8 encoded files vary by application and operating system. When using Microsoft Excel for Windows, you will also need Microsoft Notepad to encode UTF-8.
Windows
Application: Microsoft Excel (requires Notepad)
- Export data from your billing system or CIS.
- Import that data into Excel following these steps to ensure data fidelity.
- Click File>Save As.
- Choose where to save the file by selecting an existing folder or creating a new folder.
- Name the file.
- With the Save as type drop-down menu, choose CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv).
- Click Save.
- Using Notepad, open the file you just created.
- Click Save As.
- Name the file, and select Encoding>UTF-8.
- Click Save.
- To avoid introducing encoding errors, do not open and save the file in Excel after it has been encoded in Notepad.
Mac OS
Application: Microsoft Excel
- Export data from your billing system or CIS.
- Import that data into Excel following these steps to ensure data fidelity.
- Click File>Save As.
- Name the file, and use the File Formats drop-down menu to select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv).
- Click Save.
