In order to read special characters such as â, é, ï, æ, ø, or ň properly, College Kickstart requires a CSV UTF-8 type file to be uploaded.

• CSV (Comma-Separated-Values) is a file format where data is separated by commas. It is commonly used by spreadsheets programs, and importantly it allows you to easily transfer data between different applications. 
• UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format) is a type of encoding which allows for special characters.  It is useful as a general-purpose format that can support many languages.  

This article will describe how to export a CSV file in UTF-8 formatting from the following programs:

• Microsoft Excel for Windows
• Microsoft Excel for Mac
• LibreOffice Calc
• Apache OpenOffice Calc
• Numbers for Mac
• Google Sheets

Microsoft Excel for Windows 

Newer versions of Excel have the option to directly save as a CSV (UTF-8) from the Save As window.  If you have an older version, you may need to contact Support for help.  

1. Open the workbook to your target worksheet.  Excel files may have multiple sheets, but only the actively selected sheet will be converted to the CSV when you save..
2. Click on File > Save As in the menus, or press F12 to launch the Save As window.
   

3. In the Save As window under the Save as file type dropdown menu select CSV (UTF-8). Note that there are multiple CSV formats included in the list; you must select CSV (UTF-8) to preserve special characters.
   

   NOTE: Older versions of Excel such as Excel 2016 may not have CSV (UTF-8) as an option; in this case, please contact support (support@collegekickstart.com) for help with your file.

    

4. When saving, you may encounter a popup that says "Some features in your workbook might be lost if you save it as a CSV (UTF8)." Click Yes and continue to save the file.

(written with Microsoft Excel 2021 for Windows)

Microsoft Excel for Mac

1. Open the workbook to your target worksheet.  Excel files may have multiple sheets, but only the actively selected sheet will be converted to the CSV when you save..
2. Click on File > Save As in the menus to launch the Save As window.
3. In the Save As window under the Save as file type dropdown menu select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). Note that there are multiple CSV formats included in the list; you must select CSV UTF-8 to preserve special characters.
   
   
4. Complete your save.
   
   

   NOTE: Older versions of Excel may not have CSV UTF-8 as an option; in this case, please contact support (support@collegekickstart.com) for help with your file.

   (written with Microsoft Excel 365 for Mac version 16.67)

LibreOffice Calc

1. Click on File > Save As in the menus, or press (Ctrl + Shift + S) to launch the Save As window.  Under Save as type, select Text CSV (*.csv) , and check the box for Edit filter settings. Click Save.
   
2. In the Confirm File Format window, click Use Text CSV Format.
3. In the Export Text File window, find the Character set dropdown and choose Unicode (UTF-8). Click OK to complete the save.
   

(written with LibreOffice version 7.3.7 for Windows)

Apache OpenOffice Calc

1. Click on File > Save As in the menus, or press (Ctrl + Shift + S) to launch the Save As window.  Under Save as type, select Text CSV (*.csv) , and check the box for Edit filter settings. Click Save.
2. In the popup window, click Keep Current Format.
3. In the Export Text File window, find the Character set dropdown and choose Unicode (UTF-8). Click OK to complete the save.
   

(written with OpenOffice version 4.1.13 for Windows)

Numbers for Mac

1. From the menus, click on File > Export To > CSV... 

2. The "Export your Spreadsheet" window will open. Make sure that "Include table names" is unchecked. Clicking on Advanced Options reveals the Text Encoding selector which should be left as the default Unicode (UTF-8).  Once these are set, click Next.

3. Complete your save by naming the file, choosing the save location, and then hitting Export. 

(written with Numbers for Mac version 12.2.1)

Google Sheets

Google Sheets will always save a CSV file in UTF-8.

In the menus, go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv), and your file will save to your browser's downloads. 

(written with Google Sheets accessed on December 2022)