Opening CSV file in Excel 97

[Guest]

Regardless of the list separator value in regional settings, when
double-clicking the csv file, Excel 97 opens the file using "," as the
delimiter. Otherwise, when opening the file via File>Open in Excel or using
open with...Excel, the regional settings are not ignored. Is there a reason
for this? Thanks in advance.

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Ron,

Try changing the file's extension to txt. That should invoke the Text
Import Wizard, which will let you specify your delimiter.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Earl for the solution, but I need to explain to my client why the
stated behaviour is occuring. That is, is the behaviour as per design?

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Ron,

The best I can tell you is that Excel is notorious for ignoring Regional
Settings. The when it sees csv, it looks for commas, and when it sees txt,
it invokes the import wizard and lets you specify.

If you have XL 2002 or 2003, you may wish to use import, rather than Open.
Or with 2000, you may wish to record a macro that opens the file. It will
remember the selections you made in the Import Wizard. Read more at
www.smokeylake.com/excel. "Text Files and Excel."

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Ron,

On second thought, maybe I'm being a bit hard on Excel in this case.
Although there are situations where it does in shamelessly ignore the
Windows Regional Settings, in this case, since csv does stand for "comma
separated variable," I suppose it's commas by definition.