HowtoCreatePipeDelimitedFilesinExcel
MicrosoftExcelallowsyoutoexportspreadsheetdatatoanumberofcommonformatsforusewith
otherapplications.IfyouneedtoexportdatatoanotherWindows‐basedapplication,chancesarethat
oneofthenativeExcelexportformatswillworkjustfine.Inmostcases,ifallelsefails,youcanexport
Exceldatainthetext‐basedCSV,orCommaSeparatedValue,formatforusewithtext/dataeditorsthat
cannotreadordecodecommonspreadsheetfiletypes.Withafewapplications–usuallydesignedfor
LinuxorforuseontheWeb–youmighthavetosavethefileinapipe‐delimitedformat.Exceldoesnot
provideanativeexportfunctionforthistypeoffile.Therefore,youmustchangetheWindowsregional
settingstosaveafileinpipe‐delimitedformat.
Step1
CloseMicrosoftExceliftheapplicationisstillactive.Clickthe“Start”button,then“ControlPanel.”Click
the“RegionandLanguage”option.
Step2
Clickthe“AdditionalSettings”buttonintheRegionandLanguagewindow.AftertheCustomizeFormat
windowopens,locatetheListSeparatorvalueontheNumberstab.Clickinsidethedrop‐downlistfield
andtypea“|”symbolinthespace.Notethe“|”symbolisonthesamekeyasthe“\”symbolonmost
keyboards.Atilde(~)canalsobeusedinplaceof|.
Step3
Clickthe“Apply”button,then“OK”toclosetheRegionandLanguagewindow.
Step4
OpenMicrosoftExcelagainonyourcomputer.Clickthe“File”tabontheribbonbar.Clickthe“Open”
linkandbrowsetotheExcelworkbookfileyouwanttosaveinpipe‐delimitedformat.Highlightthefile
nameandclickthe“Open”button.
Step5
EdittheExcelworkbookasneeded.Clickthe“File”tabontheribbonbar,thenthe“SaveAs”menu
option.
Step6
Browsetothefolderwhereyouwanttosavethenewfileinthe“SaveAs”window.Enteranameforthe
newpipe‐delimitedformatfileinthe“FileName”field.Clickthe“SaveasType”drop‐downlistand
selectthe“CSV(CommaDelimited)”option.Clickthe“Save”button.Excelsavesthefileinpipe‐
delimitedformatinthefolderyouselected.