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2 Ways To Convert Excel Spreadsheet To CSV Format

CSV is the most cross-platform spreadsheet format, converting a spreadsheet into CSV format makes sense since most applications support CSV format rather than XLS or any other format. This post will focus on two easy ways to convert Excel Spreadsheet XLS and XLSX format into CSV Format.

Method 1 – Using XLS To CSV Converter

XLS To CSV Converter Is A small tool developed to quickly convert Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet into CSV format so that it can be used with other applications. Note that Office 2007 and 2010 have the option to save the spreadsheet in CSV format, this tool will only come useful if you are not using Windows or when you don’t have Microsoft Office installed.

RoadKil XLS To CSV

The downside of using this tool is that only XLS format can be converted, it doesn’t support the latest XLSX format.

Download XLS To CSV Converter

Method 2 – Using Google Docs Spreadsheet

This method is the most easiest and in fact doesn’t require any tool at all. Just head over to Google Docs and login with your Google account. Click New and select Spreadsheet.

Google Docs Spreadsheet

This will open a new window where you will find the spreadsheet. Now click File and then select Import.

Import Spreadsheet

You can import the following format, .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, and .txt. Click choose file and select the Excel Spreadsheet you want to convert. Once importing is done, hit Open Now link.

Import File Spreadsheet

Once your new spreadsheet is open, click File, select Download As, and choose CSV format.

convert excel to csv google docs

This will download the spreadsheet in CSV format. It’s that simple.

Visit Google Docs

Enjoy!

20 Comments

  1. When I try to convert my .xls to ,cvs in google doc I get this error message below. Please advise:
    The uploaded file has the wrong format specification – for example, you might be trying to upload a CSV file as a XLS file.

  2. I tried Method2… Document is not getting converted as .CSV. Its Windows XP Professional & Office 2007 i’m using. Could you please suggest me.

  3. While converting the excel file to CSV format,it was found that zeros preceeding a number(for eg:0001234) are being truncated(1234).Could you please provide a solution such that the zeros are retained.

    • Usually that’s excel’s fault. It happens when excel is interpreting those columns as a number rather than as text. Try Selecting All (Ctrl+A), Right click on any selected cell, Format Cells, and choose Text as the Category.

  4. I have a major problem with the conversation to .csv from .xls and .xlsx-formats alike. When using the special Danish characters æ, ø and å, these are changed to various wrong characters (to “?” from Excel, Polish characters in XLS2CSV Converter, some strange combinations from Google docs).

    I run Windows 7 and Office 2007. On another computer running XP, I don’t have this issue at all.

    Any ideas for a fix?

  5. If any field has comma (,) in spreadsheet will result problem.
    [example: cell A has data ” addictivetips,google,orkut”] .
    Because comma (,) is used as delimitter in .CSV file.
    so above example is considered as 3 seperate data in a .CSV file…
    this may cause problems if you uploadded file to SQL database…

    to avoid this :
    in google doc before download sheet press “ctrl+f” (Find and Replace), find comma(,)
    and replace it with (.) or any other charecter.you can use space also.
    then proceed as explained in article….

  6. “google doc” method worked for me… thanks for article and thanks for google doc service….

  7. You know, on windows, if you’ve never opened a CSV file before, try creating a blank textfile and changing the extension to .csv

    Windows will give its standard warning message about possible incompatibility. Ignore it and change the extension.

    Now immediatly double click it or press enter to open it. It will be opened with Windows Excel.

    That’s what happened to me anyway. And the fun thing was: Excel doesn’t use commas to seperate the data, it uses the ; character.

    That happened to me anyway. Until one of my teachers told me to try and open it with notepad.