Question
- Why are accented characters not displaying in my export?
- What are these weird symbols in my CSV export?
- How can I display accented characters in my Excel report?
Solution
When exporting a report (e.g. Quizzes/Surveys) and opening the CSV file in Excel, if the content of the CSV file contains accented characters, they will show as weird characters in Excel.
This is a result of how Excel displays accented characters (UTF-8), though we do have some solutions for you in order to view them properly:
View in Google Sheets
The easiest way to view it is to upload and view the file in Google Sheets. Google supports the UTF-8 encoding, so all of your characters will display as they should.
View in Numbers (Mac OS)
On a Mac, opening the CSV file in the Numbers application will also display it properly!
View in Excel (Windows)
If you are using a Windows computer, you can follow these steps to view the file in Excel:
- Open the CSV file in Notepad
- Click File > Save As
- Select ANSI from the Encoding dropdown
- Click Save
- Open the file in Excel