Mac App Convert Xls To Csv

admin

iCloud is a great tool to have if you are a regular iOS or macOS user. This service backs up just about all of your most important information, including your contacts.

This software offers a solution to users who want to convert one or more XLSX and XLS files into CSV format. Each sheet will be saved to an independent CSV file with commas separating the columns.

Recently, we took a look at how you can fix iCloud contacts not updating on your Mac. But what if you want to create a “hard copy” of your contacts and export contacts to excel?

Contents

  • 2 Export Contacts to Excel from Mac

Related Reading

Well, the process is actually much easier than one would expect. In fact, you can do so from either your iPhone or from your Mac without experiencing too many headaches.

Export Contacts to Excel from iPhone

Starting us off, we are going to take a look at how to export contacts to Excel from your iPhone. As iCloud does not make it easy to export contacts, you will first need to download an app.

The app that we found most useful was Contacts 2 XLS on the App Store. The app is completely free and makes the exporting process easy and painless.

After the app downloads, create an account. You can use your email address, Google account, or even Facebook to create the account.

From there, you will need to allow Contacts 2 XLS access to your contact list. This is just a permissions check that is built into iOS and is a prompt that you likely see on many new apps installed.

After you are granted access, the contact import into the Contacts 2 XLS application. Then, you are directed to the main screen within the app, where there are a few different options.

From the main screen, you can simply ‘Backup now’, manage your backups, or sign up for a subscription to automatically backup. This is an in-app purchase and costs $14.99 per year, but is not needed for our process.

If you want to export your contacts from your iPhone to excel, follow these steps:

  1. Open Contacts 2 XLS
  2. From the main screen, press Backup now
  3. Once the backup completes, tap the Export icon in the bottom right

After you tap the Export button, you are provided with the share menu from iOS. Now, save the file in a myriad of applications, or you can save to the iOS Files app.

Java convert xls to csv

Obviously, you want to make sure that the exported file is sent somewhere that provides easy access. Think about sending it using the Notes app or even sent via an email to yourself.

Export Contacts to Excel from Mac

The process of exporting contacts to excel from your Mac is a bit more tedious than simply downloading an app. For this process, we will need to fire up your browser of choice and head over to iCloud.com.

Unfortunately, you cannot simply export your contacts to excel from here. Instead, you will be creating a “vCard”, which is Apple’s way of keeping your contacts in one place.

Here are the steps you need to take to create a vCard:

  1. Open your preferred browser, navigate to iCloud.com, and log in
  2. From the main panel, click on Contacts
  3. Select a contact then press cmd + A
  4. Tap the Gear icon in the bottom right-hand corner
  5. Select Export vCard

All of your contacts will then appear in your Downloads folder on your Mac. From there, you will want to move this to a safe place, and likely rename the file to My Contacts or something similar.

However, as we stated above, this file can not easily be exported to Excel just yet. Instead, there are a few more steps we need to take.

  1. Open your preferred browser and navigate to http://labs.brotherli.ch/vcfconvert/
  2. Press Choose File and navigate to your newly created contacts list
  3. Change these settings:
    1. Format: choose CSV, choose Comma, and enable Add Header Line
    2. Encoding: choose Unicode (UTF-8)
    3. Filter: don’t change anything
    4. Modifications: don’t change anything
  4. Press convert

From there, it creates a new .csv file in your downloads folder. Again, think about changing the name of this file to something that you remember or put somewhere safe.

Once it creates this new file, make sure everything is working by opening it in either Excel or Apple Numbers. The contact list is properly sorted and organized by name while giving you all of the information you need.

Andrew is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US.

He has written for a variety of sites over the years, including iMore, Android Central, Phandroid, and a few others. Now, he spends his days working for an HVAC company, while moonlighting as a freelance writer at night.

Related Posts:

Learning has never been so easy!

Brief overview and best practices on how to take an Excel (.xlsx) file and convert it into a comma delimited values (CSV or .csv) file. This is useful if you're trying to upload files to a database or other systems that do not support .xlsx or other files. You can simply convert them to .csv so the system can ingest them in a compatible format.

This tutorial will cover how-to execute this and some basic best practices.

Though this is pretty basic IT knowledge, it can be used as a useful How-To for beginners and/or used as a living document you can refer people to. Lastly, even though it's basic file conversion, there's some tips on what to watch out for when converting from Excel to CSV.

4 Steps total

Step 1: Start with a Saved or Working Excel File

So we can work from the same file at the outset and control for potential outliers/corruptions, I'm uploading this .xlsx file. It contains my top 10 most misused or non-existent words that one should ever fall victim to.

Convert Xls To Csv

It's only ten rows across two columns so it's not a lot of data. You don't have to use this if you don't want to, but if you want a test file, this one will work just fine.

Regardless, the steps below will work for any standard Excel doc.

b6a4e7c8c5ab20d4b925e5606a9f4309136882dcd9b6f3bfe03bf285b497c8cc_example_file_to_convert.xlsx

Step 2: Click 'File' on the Ribbon

App

Once you have the file above (or other Excel file) open, go to the 'File' tab on the uppermost ribbon. Unless configured otherwise it is usually in the upper lefthand corner of an open Excel document.

Once you have the dropdown menu open after hovering over 'File', click 'Save As' from the tab's dropdown menu. A pop-up menu will appear once you have done so. The attached image is a version of what this would look like on a Mac. PC's will be very similar.

Step 3: Save the Excel (.xlsx) File into a CSV (.csv)

In the form of a 'File Format' option the menu will ask you what type of file you want to save your current .xlsx into. The full list of conversion options will vary by the type of operating system you have, but there's a few common types that are pretty consistent across the board.

The highlighted option in the attached image is the most general of .csv file options. Others (e.g. MS-DOS) are more specific in their use-case. Unless you have a known reason for picking another variety, it is advised to pick the .csv option that has no explicit verbiage in the naming convention as shown in the image.

Author's Note:
You'll notice that the photo shows me saving this to my applications file. This is not an advisable location for storing files of this type. I am only doing this so that I'm not showing you other files. Choose the file location that makes the most sense for your use-case.

Step 4: Best Practices and Notes

Once you've selected your file type and location you are technically done because your file has been converted, but there's a few 'gotchas' to consider when making conversions.

1) .csv does not support multiple tabs like .xslx does (basic conversion consideration)

If you have an Excel file with multiple tabs, you'll need to convert each tab to it's own .xlsx file and convert each to a .csv separately. Typically, you'll get a warning of potential data loss if you're using the 'Save As' wizard, but the error message is not always explicit as to what you're going to lose.

Mac App Convert Xls To Csv File

2) The default file opener for .csv files in most systems is Excel (slightly more advanced consideration)

This is because Excel is smart enough to break files into rows and columns better than most (if not all user-friendly) programs. However, it is not the only way these types of files can be opened. In fact, if you're having trouble importing a .csv into a database, I would advise that you open it up in your favorite text editor instead. That way, you can see what the root cause of a potential error is because Excel will often mask these errors making it look like nothing is wrong because it is smart enough to correct these errors behind the covers.

The image attached to this step shows the example file in .csv format. Wherever you put the file you converted in previous steps, right click it, go to 'Open With', and you'll see your default program as well as a list of other options. If you open the file with a text editor (e.g. Notepad, Notepad++, TextEdit, Sublime, Atom, etc..), you'll be able to view the file as the 'computer sees it'. This will help you navigate upload errors in a database.

3) File header best practice (advanced consideration)

In the file in step one, you'll notice that the second column, column B, has spaces in its header. This is not advised if you want to upload a .csv file into another system and carry the headers over. This is because it can cause two potential problems in a database:

a) If it uploads with a header, you will have to wrap what is now your column name in double quotes every time you call it in a query. It's not an impediment to uploading all the time, but it can be really annoying if you have to write it that way over and over again. Also, it will prevent auto-complete if your database program supports it.

b) It could cause an upload error in some systems because they're trying to prevent the troubles in 'a' above, and it could prevent you from uploading the file entirely if you do not remove or fix the header.

To prevent this, simply snake_case or CamelCase the header so there are no spaces in its name.

Whew!

I know that is a lot of text for a seemingly simple exercise, but I cannot tell you how many times I've either had to (a) teach someone how to simply convert a file to a CSV, or (b) had issues uploading a file into a database due to elementary issues.

There's a lot more to this including, non UTF-8 supported characters, data types, casting, fixing .csv upload errors through vim or bash editing.. All topics for another time. For now, that's a wrap.

Hope you found this helpful!

Published: Jun 15, 2018 · Last Updated: Jun 19, 2018

Batch Convert Xls To Csv

19 Comments

  • Tabasco
    MichaelT@ToE Jun 22, 2018 at 05:32pm

    Surprising how many end users literally need hand holding over the simplest things.

  • Geoff B (Spiceworks) Jul 12, 2018 at 03:26pm

    One note I would like to add, if you're building an application that uploads a .csv, and a .csv only, this conversion won't matter on a Windows machine because of how that OS handles file conversions. In short, Windows handles MIME types in ways that make uploading .csv files difficult because you cannot truly convert them out of .xlsx.

    Explanation of the problem in a GitHub project:
    https://github.com/mholt/PapaParse/issues/18

    The tools are starting to get better and handling file types more expertly
    Example application with file_type selection for better handling of variance:
    http://oss.sheetjs.com/js-xlsx/

  • Mace
    Mike400 Jul 18, 2018 at 01:39pm

    Even after doing this I've run into systems that won't support the generated CSV file. Excel is very, very smart when it comes to CSV files, supporting line breaks and other special characters in the various fields. Most CSV file importers will fail on these.

  • Serrano
    Scripting Guy Jul 18, 2018 at 01:51pm

    Great post. Also for those admins that for some reason need a CSV converted to Excel I highly recommend PSExcel.

    https://github.com/RamblingCookieMonster/PSExcel

  • Cayenne
    themacguy Jul 18, 2018 at 02:13pm

    Just think back of how hard all this was 10 years ago.

  • Jalapeno
    Devon1987 Jul 18, 2018 at 02:37pm

    Couldn't you also use PowerShell with a 'ConvertTo-Csv' cmdlet? I would think for a batch job that could be a better option.

  • Geoff B (Spiceworks) Jul 18, 2018 at 02:41pm

    @Devon1987

    For sure you could! For batching, this would most definitely be a better option. Also, If you're using a *nix machine, you could just use a Perl command to change all the file names with any given string.

    Not really a tutorial for that, and more of the elementary variety, but you're 100% right.

  • Thai Pepper
    Berto007 Jul 18, 2018 at 02:52pm

    Good post. I've had to look up how to convert to csv a few times as I don't often have to convert files. It's funny how many times I run in to errors and their never the same error.

  • Tabasco
    Jianderson Jul 18, 2018 at 03:39pm

    I appreciate articles like these -- even simple workflows should have solid documentation, and this definitely qualifies. Nice write up.

  • Cayenne
    furicle Jul 18, 2018 at 03:46pm

    Problem is, csv isn't a standard.

    Excel has certain default behaviour that many people consider to be a standard, but it aint..

  • Cayenne
    cnicholsontech Jul 18, 2018 at 05:06pm

    Furicle:
    There no official CSV standard, but there are common ways that CSV handle escaped fields. It's generally accepted that if you have a field with commas in it, the field can be enclosed by double quotes. That's how excel handles it, and that's how most databases handle it (sometimes it has to be enabled. For example, doing a MySQL import infile command, you can specify a clause

    OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY ''

    (that's a single quote, a double quote, and a single quote, meaning you can enclose fields in double quotes. And there are further ways to escape double quotes that are generally considered as best practices, if not an outright standard. It's only *not* a standard because it basically pre-dates everyone trying to patent their garbage formats and seek licensing fees.

  • Datil
    troberts2 Jul 18, 2018 at 07:29pm

    Anyone skipped using the application and just coded for batching up a folder of files using Powershell to convert them?? TechNet had this doozy listed out there .. just swap out location as needed.

    $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

    Function Convert-CsvInBatch
    {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param
    (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$Folder
    )
    $ExcelFiles = Get-ChildItem -Path $Folder -Filter *.xlsx -Recurse

    $excelApp = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
    $excelApp.DisplayAlerts = $false

    $ExcelFiles ForEach-Object {
    $workbook = $excelApp.Workbooks.Open($_.FullName)
    $csvFilePath = $_.FullName -replace '.xlsx$', '.csv'
    $workbook.SaveAs($csvFilePath, [Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlFileFormat]::xlCSV)
    $workbook.Close()
    }

    # Release Excel Com Object resource
    $excelApp.Workbooks.Close()
    $excelApp.Visible = $true
    Start-Sleep 5
    $excelApp.Quit()
    [System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($excelApp) Out-Null
    }

    #
    # 0. Prepare the folder path which contains all excel files
    $FolderPath = 'D:varprojectsOCOSvarexcelchange'

    Convert-CsvInBatch -Folder $FolderPath

    There's another article out there in a similar site with alternate code as well ... https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/3223/extract-and-convert-all-excel-worksheets-into-csv-files-using-powershell/

  • Chipotle
    EliteCommander Jul 19, 2018 at 09:04am

    I once (back in the 90's) had to manipulate a 'database' file containing every model of car in existence, at least every one that the company, an insurance broker, would cover. I think it was 35-50k lines of data. The original file came from a mainframe and was in a kind of loosely organised csv-style format and they needed it in Excel since that's what the office was using. Every time I changed something and did a sort on the table, I'd start it running and then go to lunch, getting back about 1 hour later to find it had either just completed or was near to finishing. I'm glad we have better tools and processors these days. Thanks for the tips, I have had to teach this on many occasions, but still learned a little about importing csvs into other applications.

    The present day advancement in technology hasmade all the aspects of life hi-tech and business is no exception to this. Free time tracking project management software mac. These types of software’s not only helps you to plan aproject but also schedule it, manage it, allocate resources and perform otherfunctions. Below given is the list of top 5 free project management software for Mac. Goneare the days when hours and hours were taken to plan business meetings, reportsand projects on paper. In order to save time and make business work efficient varioussoftware’s are available among which project management software is one of themost widely used.

  • Jalapeno
    Dale2538 Jul 20, 2018 at 01:51am

    Sub QuoteCommaExport()
    ' Dimension all variables.
    Dim FileNum As Integer
    Dim ColumnCount As Integer
    Dim RowCount As Integer

    Dim sFName

    If Selection.Rows.Count = 1 Then
    MsgBox 'Select rows to export'
    Exit Sub
    End If


    ' Force File Type during Save
    sFName = Application.GetSaveAsFilename(ActiveWorkbook.Path & 'textfile.csv', 'CSVfiles (*.csv), *.csv')

    If sFName = False Then
    MsgBox 'cancelled'
    Exit Sub
    End If
    ' Obtain next free file handle number.
    FileNum = FreeFile()

    ' Turn error checking off.
    On Error Resume Next

    ' Attempt to open destination file for output.
    Open sFName For Output As #FileNum

    ' If an error occurs report it and end.
    If Err <> 0 Then
    MsgBox 'Cannot open filename ' & sFName
    End
    End If

    ' Turn error checking on.
    On Error GoTo 0

    ' Loop for each row in selection.
    For RowCount = 1 To Selection.Rows.Count

    ' Loop for each column in selection.
    For ColumnCount = 1 To Selection.Columns.Count

    ' Write current cell's text to file with quotation marks.
    Print #FileNum, '' & Selection.Cells(RowCount, _
    ColumnCount).Text & '';

    ' Check if cell is in last column.
    If ColumnCount = Selection.Columns.Count Then
    ' If so, then write a blank line.
    Print #FileNum,
    Else
    ' Otherwise, write a comma.
    Print #FileNum, ',';
    End If
    ' Start next iteration of ColumnCount loop.
    Next ColumnCount
    ' Start next iteration of RowCount loop.
    Next RowCount

    ' Close destination file.
    Close #FileNum
    MsgBox 'Exported ' & RowCount
    End Sub

    I've tried suggested fixes such as setting up the keyboard when the mac identifies the new keyboard. I've recently purchased the Masterkeys pro M keyboard and I'm loving it so far on the windows side; however, I work in both the windows and OSX operating systems and the OSX side is not functioning as I would assume.Pressing numlock doesn't switch the numpad (which was the entire reason why I bought this keyboard because it has a numpad in a smaller than full-size keyboard package) into it's numpad mode. Cooler master havoc software & driver download for windows mac pro. I've also updated the firmware already.

  • Habanero
    Bill2718 Jul 20, 2018 at 06:11pm

    There may not be an official standard from a standards body like ISO, but there IS a de facto standard, it's pretty well documented here.

    https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180

    Line breaks are the biggest problem.

  • prev
  • 1
  • 2
  • next