Opening CSV files that have special characters

Opening CSV files can be tricky— when you have languages such as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Hebrew, there is a specific way to deal with them.

The following steps will explain how to open CSV files with special characters in Excel (2019). Other spreadsheet tools (i.e., LibreOffice), probably have similar actions.

1. Open a new worksheet;
2. Select Data on the top menu;
3. Click in From Text/CSV;
4. Select your CSV file with special characters and click Import;
5. On the File Origin dropdown menu, select 65001:Unicode (UTF-8);
6. Select the Delimiter that you want, making sure the table preview fits your needs;
7. Click Load.

Other Excel versions may vary slightly, but the primary intention is to import the file instead of opening it like a regular file, making it possible to select Unicode UTF-8, which will display the characters correctly.

If you need any further clarification or help, please reach out to [e-mail].