Many users have encountered the issue of encountering “???” or unreadable special characters when opening CSV files in Excel. This situation makes it difficult for users in their work and studies. So how to fix CSV files with Vietnamese font errors in Excel? In this article, FPT Shop will provide you with the most detailed instructions.
Why does the CSV file have font errors in Excel?
Many users have opened CSV files in Excel for data entry or editing and have encountered special characters such as “?” or “%” appearing in the data. The reason for this issue is that you did not select the UTF-8 character set when saving the CSV file and opening the CSV file in Excel.
This leads to font errors in your CSV file in Excel. However, don’t worry because you can fix this issue by selecting the UTF-8 character set when saving the file. If you do not know how to do this, you can follow the detailed instructions in the next section.
How to fix Vietnamese font errors in CSV files when opening in Excel
If you encounter font errors when opening a CSV file in Excel, you must open the CSV file from within Excel instead of directly clicking on the CSV file to open it. The following is a detailed guide that you can refer to.
Quick guide
First, open the Excel file > Click on the Data tab > Click on Get External Data > Select From Text > Select the CSV file you want to open > Click on Open > Check the Delimited option > Go to File Origin > Check UTF-8 > Click Next > Only check the Comma box > Click Next > Click Finish > Select the cell containing the data > Finally, click OK and open the CSV file.
Detailed guide
Step 1: Open the Excel file > Click on the Data tab.
Step 2: Click on Get External Data > Select From Text.
Note: For MacOS, you only need to click on the Data tab > Select From Text that is already available in the toolbar, without clicking on Get External Data.
Step 3: Select the CSV file you want to open > Then click on Open.
Step 4: Check the Delimited box > Then go to the File Origin section > Check UTF-8 > Click on Next.
Step 5: Uncheck all boxes > Check the Other box > Enter a semicolon “;” > Click Next to continue.
Note:
- Entering a semicolon will help you separate columns by a semicolon “;”.
- If your computer uses commas “,”, check the Comma box to separate columns by a comma.
- At this step, you can only check one box.
Step 6: In the Column data format section, select the format for each column > Then check if the data is correct > Then click Finish.
Tip: At this step, you should select General for all columns to avoid format errors.
Step 7: When another dialog box appears, select the cell containing data in the Excel file > Then click OK.
Step 8: Finally, open the CSV file in Excel and check that there are no font errors.
Guide on how to save CSV files without font errors when opening
If you want to open a CSV file without using Excel, you can also save the CSV file as UTF-8 and open it directly.
Quick guide
First, open the Excel file you want to save as CSV > Select the File tab > Select Save As > Select the save location > Click on the arrow in the Save as type section > Select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) > Click Save to save and reopen the CSV file with font errors to check.
Detailed guide
Step 1: Open the Excel file you want to save as CSV > Click on the File tab.
Step 2: Continue to click on Save As.
Step 3: Then select the save location.
Step 4: Click on the arrow in the Save as type section > Select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).
Step 5: Then click Save to save the CSV file.
Step 6: At this point, a new dialog box will appear asking if you want to change the format or not > Click on Yes to complete.
Conclusion
In the above article, FPT Shop has provided you with instructions on how to fix CSV files with Vietnamese font errors in Excel. Hopefully, the useful information above will help you quickly handle similar cases.