Exporting CSV file with hebrew

[Omer Zak]

Hello Ori,
I suggest that you ask your client for a screenshot of the Excel window
displaying the sample imported *.csv file.

How can this benefit:

1. Clear up any miscommunication - maybe the client is viewing a view
not containing the cells having the Hebrew text; or another equally
ridiculous misunderstanding.

2. From the gibberish which the client does see (and captured by the
screenshot) you can guess which encoding did his Excel use to import the
file.

                                              --- Omer


On Sat, 2010-07-31 at 23:04 +0300, Ori Idan wrote:
> I have tested google docs with the same file translated using iconv to
> UTF-8 and it works great.
> I still have a problem with excel, my customer claims he can not see
> the hebrew in the file.
> Does someone on this list has access to Excel and can tell me how to
> tell excel the right encoding so it can import the hebrew?
> I myself don't have access to Exccel and thus can not test it.
> I can send a sample file.
> 
> -- 
> Ori Idan
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 12:47 AM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il> wrote:
>         
>         On Sat, 2010-07-31 at 00:20 +0300, Ori Idan wrote:
>         >
>         >
>         > On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 12:17 AM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il>
>         wrote:
>         >         My experience is limited to whatever my CPA is using
>         (I think
>         >         he uses
>         >         Excel).  By experimenting with utf-8, cp862,
>         iso_8859-8 and
>         >         windows-1255
>         >         encodings, we found that windows-1255 worked for
>         him.
>         >
>         >         If you find that Google Docs and Excel have
>         contradictory
>         >         expectations,
>         >         then I suggest that you allow people to export the
>         CSV file in
>         >         either
>         >         "Google Docs compatible" encoding or "Excel
>         compatible"
>         >         encoding.
>         >
>         > What is google docs compatible format?
>         
>         
>         By trial, I found that utf-8 is the Google Docs compatible
>         encoding:
>         1. Create in Google Docs a spreadsheet with Hebrew text.
>         2. Export it in CSV format to a file in your PC.
>         3. Open the file in gedit and modify some cells.
>         4. Import the file into Google Docs and demonstrate that it
>         displays
>         correctly the modified values.
>         5. By means of xxd -g 1 (or other means), confirm that the
>         file is in
>         utf-8 encoding.
>         
>         By the way, I expect Excel to be configurable to accept also
>         other
>         encodings - but you'll have to find how to do it, and to write
>         clear
>         instructions for the users.

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