Retaining format

[Guest]

I am occasionally opening a .csv file read-only as the file gets written from
some app. When it is open I can format the cells but each time I re-open the
file the formatting is gone. Is there a way to retain the formatting?

grok

 

[David Biddulph]

CSV files don't have formatting. They are comma-separated text. If you
want specific formatting, I suggest you save the formatting in an Excel
file, & then copy from your CSV file & Paste Special/ Values into the Excel
file

David Biddulph

 

[Guest]

Would it be better to write the file as a .xls file in the first place?

 

[Dave Peterson]

No matter what the fileformat, if the file is marked readonly, you'll have to
save it as a new name.

And if you want to save formatting (columnwidths for example), you'll want to
save it as a normal .xls file.

But if you have control over that other app, you may find you have less work to
do if the file is created as a normal excel file.