Question:

A user opens the CSV file exported from Vault and finds a special character  displayed. Why is this special character displayed? 

Answer:

The exported data contains special characters (such as é, ç, ü, etc.). These special characters are rendered incorrectly in Excel because Microsoft Excel™ is unable to properly display UTF-8 compliant CSV files when they contain non-English characters. This is an Excel issue rather than a Vault issue. The workaround for this issue is as follows:

• Windows

Method 1:

1. Open the CSV file using Notepad.
2. Click File --> Save As.
3. In the dialog window that appears, select ANSI from the Encoding field. Click Save.
4. Open this new CSV file using Excel. Non-English characters are displayed properly.

If Method 1 does not work, try the following Method 2.

Method 2:

1. Open the CSV file using Notepad.
2. Select all contents and copy.
3. Open Microsoft Excel™ to create a new blank workbook.
4. Paste all contents to the new workbook.
5. Click Data --> Text to Columns.
   
   
   
   
6. Check Delimited.
   
   
   
   
7. Select the Tab and Comma checkboxes.
   
   
   
   
8. Click the Finish button.
9. Save the workbook as xlsx format, not as CSV. Saving as CSV results in the text not displaying properly again.

• Mac OS
  
  Use the Numbers application instead of Excel.

Related Documentation:

Vault Help Documentation: CSV Exports