How to open a CSV file in Microsoft Excel

Every report produced by ProAbono can be downloaded in CSV format.

Double-clicking the downloaded file is the quickest way to be disappointed: Excel opens it using the list separator configured for your system, and a file that uses a different one lands entirely in column A. Importing the file explicitly lets you see and correct the separator before the data is loaded.

Procedure

1. Open a blank workbook in Microsoft Excel.
2. On the Data tab, click From Text/CSV in the Get & Transform Data group.
3. Select the CSV file you downloaded from ProAbono, then click Import.
4. A preview window opens, with three settings across the top:
   • File Origin — the character encoding. Leave the detected value unless accented characters look wrong in the preview.
   • Delimiter — Excel detects this from the file and pre-selects it. Check that the preview below is laid out in columns; if it is not, pick another value from the list.
   • Data Type Detection — leave on the default.
5. When the preview shows your data in proper columns, click Load.

The data is inserted into the worksheet and is ready to work with.

Tip

Accented characters showing as é or ? mean the encoding was guessed wrongly. Set File Origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8) and the preview corrects itself immediately.

Note

Load inserts the data as-is. Transform Data opens the Power Query editor first, where you can filter rows, remove columns or change a column’s type before loading — useful for a large export you only need part of.