Help · Catalogue and CSV

A CSV is a plain text file, and a spreadsheet has to be told how to read it. The Lotdesk file is comma-separated, written in UTF-8, with every value in quotes.

Excel. Do not double-click the file; if you do, a pound or euro sign or an accented letter may appear as two odd characters. Instead choose Data, then From Text/CSV, pick the file and set File origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8) and the delimiter to Comma. Then press Load.

Numbers. Use File, then Open, and choose the file. If a pound sign or an accent looks wrong there, bring the file in through Excel or Google Sheets as described here and save a fresh copy.

Google Sheets. Use File, then Import, upload the file, and choose to replace or insert a sheet. The separator is detected automatically.

Things that can surprise you:

• Leading zeros. A spreadsheet may turn a value such as 007 into 7 when it opens the file. When it offers a choice of column types on import, set the Lot no. column and any reference to text.
• Line breaks. A description with a line break occupies one cell with the break inside it. It is not a second row.
• Saving back. Save the edited file as CSV again if you will import it somewhere. Saving as a spreadsheet file keeps the formatting but the importing system cannot read it.

If a column is missing or the rows seem to run together, check that the delimiter is set to comma. See Exporting the CSV for the column list.

Not what you needed? Write to support@lotdesk.app, with the details in what to tell us.