Spreadsheet workflows
How to convert Excel to CSV without breaking UTF-8
Learn how to export Excel data to CSV without corrupting accents, symbols, leading zeros, or date formats.
Document summary
A guide to converting Excel files to CSV while keeping UTF-8 characters, leading zeros, and date formats intact.
Key takeaways
- Choose UTF-8 output so accents and symbols survive
- Keep leading zeros by treating identifiers as text
- Fix dates and separators before the export
Why CSV exports corrupt data
Spreadsheet exports often write the local ANSI encoding instead of UTF-8, so characters such as accents, curly quotes, and emoji turn into question marks. Delimiters and decimal separators also depend on regional settings.
Leading zeros vanish when Excel treats values as numbers, and dates are written in the display format, which may not match what the target system expects.
- Non-ASCII characters replaced with ? characters
- Leading zeros stripped from IDs and zip codes
- Dates written in the wrong order for the target system
- Commas inside fields that break naive parsers
Convert with the local tool
- 1
Open the Excel to CSV converter and load the XLSX or XLS file locally.
- 2
Choose UTF-8 encoding for the output.
- 3
Select the delimiter your target system expects (comma, semicolon, or tab).
- 4
Review the preview for encoding and formatting issues, then download.
When the source is already messy
For files with stray quotes, mixed line endings, or extra whitespace, run the output through the CSV cleaner before importing it elsewhere.
If the destination is Excel again, converting via the CSV to Excel tool with explicit column types avoids the same reformatting problems in reverse.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my accents appear as question marks in CSV?
The export used a legacy encoding instead of UTF-8. Re-export with UTF-8 selected to preserve the characters.
How do I keep leading zeros in IDs?
Format the column as text in Excel before exporting, or convert with the tool which preserves values as text.
Comma or semicolon as the delimiter?
It depends on the target system and locale. The converter lets you choose and previews the result.
Is my spreadsheet uploaded?
No. Conversion runs locally in your browser.
