How can I open the CSV attachment?

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CSV is short for Comma Separated Value. It is a common used format tu exchange data between different applications. You can view and edit a CSV file using Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets of LibreOffice Calc. BirdRing uses a CSV file to send your observation data by email.

When you open the CSV file using Excel, it may happen that data are not formatted the right way. This is caused by regional settings in Windows, like Dutch. These settings doe not fit the international standard that is used by BirdRing in the CSV file.

There are several ways to overcome this issue. One is to use Google Spreadsheets to open the CSV file. Another is to adjust regional settings in Windows. You need to do that only once:

In Windows, start the Control Panel, and under “Clock, Language en Region” you choose “Change date, time or number formats”:

control-panel-region

Now you see this window (or a regional variant):

region-additional-settings

Choose Additional Settings, then you see this:

customise-format

In this window you must adjust three settings:

  • Decimal symbol: . (point)
  • Digit grouping symbol: , (comma)
  • List separator: , (comma)

Finally click OK a few times.

N.B. These changes will be active in Excel, when you first close Excel and then restart Excel.