Did you know that there are 1.2 billion MS Office users in the world? For many, Excel has been the one-stop-shop for their data organizational needs.
Excel is used globally for everything from project management to payroll to productivity predictions.
However, even Excel has its limits. Many people in 2019 are beginning to understand and apply the power of the CSV file, or comma-separated value file. In fact, in some cases, it has become an industry standard.
What is a CSV file? And when should you switch to using it? Check our guide to the best usage of CSV files today.
What is a CSV File?
Let’s start at the beginning. What is a CSV file? Think of your average spreadsheet program. You are familiar with the rows and columns layout. The spreadsheet program retains information regarding the content of the cells. It also retains control of the formatting of the content within the program.
This works basically well. However, with limitations. This is essentially into the spreadsheet program and cannot easily be used in another format. It is also very difficult to port this information to other programs.
CSV files provide similar functionality, yet with greater flexibility. CSV files do not depend on outside software to arranges or delimits the data. In fact, it does not retain any formatting instructions at all. It simply and efficiently organizes the data using the humble and simple comma.
The beauty of this is that the CSV file closely resembles a text file. Users can thus import it into nearly all data interfaces.
For this reason, it has in some cases become an industry standard. Magneto and many other legal and retail software programs regularly work in CSV files.
Why Would I Use a CSV File?
The flexibility of CSV files gives them multiple uses:
Data Transfer
Spreadsheet programs are used to hold vast amounts of data.
At a certain point, this becomes too large for a spreadsheet to handle. They must be transferred to a specific database program. This is often accomplished by converting the spreadsheet to a CSV file.
Easy to Make
CSV files are essentially plain text files. This means that they can be created very simply and quickly yet can handle large amounts of data safely.
Accessibility
Plain text files are one of the most basic file types available. They are almost universally accepted by data management programs worldwide.
How Do I Create a CSV File?
A spreadsheet may hold a large amount of important information. Thus, it is very important to convert spreadsheets to CSV files with zero data loss.
Entrusting this information to experts for its conversion is the best way to do this. However, they need to provide some assurances.
The information in the spreadsheet may be sensitive. The converters must provide assurances that the security of the file is guaranteed. This is not only during the conversion stage but also during upload and download. This may be provided by means of SSL or TSL encryption.
The converter must guarantee that they will not retain or abuse the information by placing it in the public domain.
Once you have researched these requirements and located a trustworthy online tool you are ready to convert.
Of course, in the unlikely event that you will want to turn back to Excel, you can also convert to Excel with the same trustworthy method.
How Can I View a CSV File?
Data is arranged in text file format separated by comma delimitation. As discussed, this allows it to be read and accessed by a number of programs.
The simplest way of reading this type of file is to open it in a plain text editor. Many are available free of charge including the plain text editor Notepad that Windows provides as standard.
Alternatively, an ASCII or word processing application will be able to retrieve the data.
Perhaps the most natural and familiar method of reading the data as in a table with columns and rows, such as a spreadsheet program.
When to Convert?
If you are wondering whether you should convert your spreadsheet files to CSV, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I have mathematical calculations that I need to convert to visual images for a presentation?
- Do I have a large number of statistics that I need to make a visual impact with graphics and illustrations?
- Have I been given a large number of numbers that I am not familiar with and need to process into meaningful data?
- Am I worried that my growing database will soon be too large for the spreadsheet program that I am using and will soon to need to safely export it?
If you answer yes to these or any similar questions, you may need to start considering converting your spreadsheet files to CSV format.
File Conversions of Almost Every Kind
Converting spreadsheet files such as an Excel file to CSV file is a crucial step in translating data into a more secure or visual format. However, this is just one of the many conversions available.
Why not check out our services to see what we can do for you. These services are provided free of charge.
Conversion is now available for archives, images, spreadsheets, and document and presentation formats. This means that you can access and employ this data in more ways than ever before.
Simply upload to our secure servers, convert and use these documents in the most productive way you can.