Save CSV with UTF-8 Encoding

It depends on the software you are using to create the CSV file. You may need to consult your software provider or support resource for your specific software.

Microsoft Excel

We do not recommend using Excel to save a CSV file because Excel removes leading zeros and reformats dates and other data. If your data source is Excel, then follow these steps to save a UTF-8-encoded CSV file.

1. Open your file in Microsoft Excel.
2. Go to File > Save As.
3. Select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv) as your file format.
4. Click Save.

Notepad (Windows)

If you have a CSV file from another source, or you are starting with Notepad:

1. Open the CSV file in Notepad.
2. Go to File > Save As.
3. Select UTF-8 as the encoding option (use "UTF-8 no BOM" if available).
4. Click Save.

TextEdit (Mac)

1. Select Edit > Make Plain Text.
2. Go to File > Save.
3. Specify a file name and use .CSV as the extension.
4. Select Unicode (UTF-8) as the encoding option.
5. Click Save.

Google Sheets

1. Create a new Google Sheet.
2. From the new Google Sheet, go to File > Import.
3. Select the applicable CSV file from your local drive or drag it into the dialog box.
   
   Note: Deselect Convert text to numbers, dates, and formulas.
4. Click Import data. Google Sheets automatically converts the file to UTF-8 upon opening it.
5. To save the encoded file, go to File > Download.
6. Select Comma Separated Values (CSV). The file downloads as UTF-8.
   
   Note: Once downloaded, do not open the file in another program because it may be converted to another character encoding and the above workflow may have to be repeated.