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Hi

I would like to inform you that I have tried the following procedure to open the csv file using ms excel 2007 and I was able to read the csv file Arabic character correctly;

First, Open Excel to a blank spreadsheet.
Select the Data tab.
In the Get External Data box, click on the From Text option and selected my csv file in the Import Text File box.
The Text Import Wizard will start
select the delimiter as tab.
click Next.
click on Finish.

This manual procedure works fine with me.

Is there another way this can be done automatically by ms excel 2007.

Regds.
Bashnaini

I do all of my work on Macs and I do not have access to Windows or MS Office including Excel 2007. So I have no way to see if there is a better way to import CVS files into Excel. But I'm pretty sure there is an easier way than using the "Get External Data" method.

I use OpenOffice (free version of office suite compatible with MS Office) and it is very easy to import CSV files. I just do File | Open... and then pick the CSV file. OpenOffice then automatically takes you to a dialog that lets you specify things like fields and string delimiters and character encoding, all on one screen. It seems to me Excel should be that easy too.

Thanks for the feedback in the other thread about Arabic and UTF-8. All worked well on my PC.

Now I am sorry to bother you again re: the MAC and OpenOffice. When I open the file and point to the CSV file, I get to the ASCII filter wizard. I entered UTF-8. After that the file opens as a document in WRTIER rather than as a spreadsheet in CALC.

Is there a trick I am missing to get the CSV to be imported into CALC rather than WRITER.

I hope the above is clear since this i the first time I use OpenOffice.

Thank you for all your help.

I use OpenOffice version 3.3 on my Mac. When I open a CSV file I get a Text Import wizard where it asks me all about the file encoding, language, and the separator options. When I click OK the file opens in a spreadsheet. Also, in the version of OpenOffice I'm using I don't see WRITER or CALC, I see Text Document and Spreadsheet. Perhaps your version is newer. I know my version is a couple of years old.