Opening CSV files with Excel.

Well there is a way around the problem.

Instead of opening the file in the standard way, do the following.

Start Excel and prepare the way.

Highlight all of the columns for which you are going to import data. On the column headers row A,B,C etc, go to A; click and HOLD the left buttomn on the mouse; move the mouse right until you have highted all of the columns you want to format; then release your mouse button.(N for Baptisms, O for Burials and AD for marriages)
Format them all as text by going to the Format option on the task menu at the top and selecting the cells option. A formatting options box appears. On the Number tab go to the listing of Categories and select the Text option. See below:

Start the import process.

Go to the Data option on the Excel task bar and click on it. Move down to the Get External Data option and a second option tab opens. Go to the Import Text File option and click it. A file open box appears. Position to the directory that your file is in in the normal manner. You will not see the file until you change the Type of file in the bottom box to All Files. Then you will see your CSV file.

Double click on the name of the file you wish to import and the Text Import Wizard will open up. See Below:

In the top box marked Original data type you will see two options; Delimited and Fixed Data Width. Most likely the Fixed Data Width option will have been preselected. Well change it to the Delimited option. Click Next. Step 2 of the Text Import Wizard opens. In the Delimiters option box place a tick mark against the comma option and blank out all others. See below:

Click Next and Step 3 of the Text Import Wizard opens. This is now the key step where we tell Excel what to do with the data. Normally Excel assigns a general data type to all fields. This is what results in the date conversion. Click on the column containing date information and then go to the Column data format options at the top and select the text option. Repeat this for any other date colmns you may have. See below:

Then click Finish and the final options box opens up asking where to place the data. See below:

You can normally just click OK. Your data is then correctly entered ,b>without converting the date fields! See below:

Last update
29 Sep 2006 DKD