Limitations on CSV Exports of Data with Special Characters

If you export data in a language other than English to a CSV file, and you use Microsoft® Excel to open the file, some special characters may appear corrupted.

Exported CSV files are plain text files that do not include any BOM (byte order marker) characters to provide character encoding information. These files use UTF-8 character encoding, but their lack of BOM causes Excel to use a character encoding other than UTF-8 for them, causing their special (non-ASCII) characters to appear corrupted.

This issue does not occur when you open an exported XLS file in Microsoft® Excel. It also does not occur when you open an exported CSV file in Notepad, or in another text or CSV editor.

To avoid this issue:

1. Export data to Microsoft® Excel, instead of CSV.

2. Open the file in Excel.

3. Save the file as a CSV file, if desired.

   Note that Excel adds a BOM character to the beginning of the CSV file.

Related Topics

• Comparing Export Formats
• Exporting Lists
• Exporting a Report
• Exporting Search Results
• Limitations on Exports to PDF
• Exporting Account Registers

General Notices