Pick CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) for almost everything you will import into another system, because it stores text as UTF-8 and keeps accented names, symbols and non-Latin scripts intact. The older CSV (Comma delimited) option is a legacy format that can turn characters it cannot store into question marks, permanently. If you already have a damaged or mis-encoded export, CSVPrune from Automata Labs opens it with the right encoding and delimiter on your own PC and exports clean, properly quoted UTF-8 CSV.
Open the CSV with the right encoding, check it, and export clean UTF-8.
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What CSV options does Excel’s Save As offer?
In Excel for Windows, File, Save As, then the Save as type list shows several comma-separated formats. Microsoft’s page on file formats that are supported in Excel describes the legacy ones, and its file formats supported in Excel for Mac page describes CSV UTF-8.
| Save as type | What Microsoft says it is for | Mentions Unicode? |
|---|---|---|
| CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) | Exports the active sheet “to a text file that complies with UTF-8 Unicode encoding standards” | Yes |
| CSV (Comma delimited) | “For use on another Windows operating system” | No |
| CSV (Macintosh) | “For use on the Macintosh operating system” | No |
| CSV (MS-DOS) | “For use on the MS-DOS operating system” | No |
Two rules apply to every one of them. Microsoft says each format “Saves only the active sheet,” and for CSV UTF-8 it adds that “Cell properties, formulas, graphics, and other formatting are not preserved.” Excel also warns you when you save that your worksheet “may contain features that are not supported by text file formats.”
Microsoft’s descriptions of the legacy formats talk about which operating system they are for, not about Unicode. Only the CSV UTF-8 description mentions Unicode at all.
Why do accents and symbols turn into question marks?
Because the legacy CSV (Comma delimited) format writes text in an older, limited character set rather than UTF-8. Characters outside that set have nowhere to go. A long-running Microsoft Q&A thread describes the classic symptom: a user saving math formulas found that “special characters like square root, cube root and such gets converted to question marks (?).” Names in Polish, Turkish, Greek, Chinese or Arabic, curly quotes, emoji and many currency symbols are common victims.
The important part is that the damage happens when the file is written. Once a character has been saved as a question mark, no import setting or text editor can bring it back. You have to save again from the original workbook.
What is the BOM, and does it matter?
A byte order mark (BOM) is an invisible signature at the start of a file. The Unicode Consortium’s FAQ lists the UTF-8 BOM as the bytes EF BB BF and explains that, for UTF-8, it “is only used as a signature, an indication that an otherwise unmarked text file is in UTF-8.”
The BOM matters for Excel. Microsoft’s support note on opening CSV UTF-8 files correctly in Excel says: “You can open a CSV file encoded with UTF-8 normally if it was saved with BOM (Byte Order Mark).” Without one, it tells you to use Data, Get Data, From File, From Text/CSV, or the Get Data From Text wizard instead of double-clicking.
The BOM can also matter in the other direction. The Unicode FAQ notes that “some recipients of UTF-8 encoded data do not expect a BOM,” and that it can “interfere with any protocol or file format that expects specific ASCII characters at the beginning.” A strict importer may read the BOM as part of the first column name.
To check whether a file starts with a BOM, run this in PowerShell:
[System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\Exports\contacts.csv")[0..2]If the result is 239, 187 and 191, the file starts with a UTF-8 BOM.
Which CSV format should I choose?
| Your situation | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Importing into a CRM, email platform, store or database | CSV UTF-8 | Keeps every character; most modern importers expect UTF-8 |
| Sending to someone who will open it in Excel | CSV UTF-8, or just send the .xlsx | Opens cleanly when the file has a BOM |
| An old system whose docs ask for “ANSI” or Windows-1252 | CSV (Comma delimited) | Only if you have checked the data has no characters outside that set |
| A system that rejects files with a BOM | UTF-8 without a BOM | Export from a tool that lets you control it, or test first |
| Anything with leading zeros or long IDs | Fix the column first | Excel can change values before the file is ever saved |
On that last row: Save As writes what the cells contain. If Excel has already turned 00123 into 123 or a long ID into scientific notation, choosing the right CSV type will not undo it. Our guide to Excel removing leading zeros from CSV files covers that problem.
Why does my CSV open as one column, or with semicolons?
That is a delimiter problem, not an encoding one. Excel’s CSV handling follows your regional settings, and Microsoft’s import page even includes a section on changing the default list separator for saving files as .csv, using a semicolon in some regions. Microsoft’s import and export text files page notes that “When Excel opens a .csv file, it uses the current default data format settings to interpret how to import each column of data.” To control it yourself, import through From Text/CSV, or change the file extension to .txt to force the import wizard. See fixing CSV encoding and delimiter problems on Windows for the full walkthrough.
How do I fix a CSV that was saved with the wrong encoding?
If you still have the original workbook, open it and Save As again with CSV UTF-8. If all you have is the CSV, you need a tool that lets you choose how to read it, check the result, and write it back out properly. That is CSVPrune’s job. According to its Microsoft Store listing and product page:
- Encoding and delimiter control: it auto-detects and lets you override UTF-8, UTF-16 and Latin-1, and comma, semicolon, tab or pipe separators, “so CRM and EU files stop arriving” garbled.
- Leading zeros and long IDs stay intact, because values are treated as text.
- Before and after view: flip between your original and cleaned data with one click.
- Clean and transform: trim whitespace, normalize emails, standardize dates and numbers, remove exact or near duplicates, and find and replace with regex.
- Big files: scroll, search, filter and sort 100,000+ row files.
- Export to clean, properly quoted UTF-8 CSV, JSON or XLSX.
- Recipes: save your cleaning steps and replay them on next week’s export.
- Private: no cloud, no telemetry and no network calls of any kind.
Decode the file correctly, fix what Excel broke, and export UTF-8 that imports cleanly.
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A typical repair looks like this:
- Open the CSV in CSVPrune and look at a column with accented names.
- If characters look wrong, switch the encoding between UTF-8, Latin-1 and UTF-16 until they read correctly.
- Confirm the delimiter, so every column lands in its own field.
- Check for question marks where letters should be. If they are literally stored as ”?”, the original data is gone and you need a fresh export from the source system.
- Clean and validate, then export as UTF-8 CSV.
- Test-import a few rows into the destination before loading the whole file.
Frequently asked questions
Is CSV UTF-8 the same as a normal CSV?
It is still a comma-separated text file. The difference is the encoding: CSV UTF-8 stores text as UTF-8, while CSV (Comma delimited) uses a legacy character set.
Why doesn’t my Excel have CSV UTF-8?
Older versions of Excel did not offer it; Microsoft’s Mac page, for example, marks it as an Excel 2016 for Mac feature. If your version lacks it, export through another tool that writes UTF-8.
Does CSV UTF-8 keep formulas?
No. Microsoft says cell properties, formulas, graphics and formatting are not preserved. Only values from the active sheet are saved.
Can I get back characters that became question marks?
Not from the CSV. The characters were replaced when the file was saved. Save again from the original workbook or re-export from the source system.
Does CSVPrune upload my data?
No. Its Store listing says it makes no network calls and runs entirely on your PC.
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Get CSVPrune from the Microsoft Store. It is a one-time purchase with no subscription, and the Store listing shows the current price.
Clean, correctly encoded CSV files, made on your own PC.
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Microsoft, Windows and Excel are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Unicode is a trademark of Unicode, Inc. CSVPrune is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.
Last updated 21 October 2026. Published by Automata Labs, a software company in Canada.