ViewCSV
Open a CSV, choose how its columns should be separated, then download a .txt file. The starting settings use tabs, UTF-8, CRLF line endings and a header row. This is useful when an import screen asks for a delimited text file: you can inspect the result before saving, without uploading the data. TXT is a filename extension, so the receiving application still needs the same delimiter and encoding.
Make a text file that the receiving app can read
- Open a file, paste rows or try the sample. Check the Input preview. If columns or characters look wrong, choose the input delimiter or encoding in Import settings and reopen the source.
- Choose tab, comma, semicolon or pipe for the output. Set quoting, CRLF or LF line endings, whether to include the header, and the output encoding. The TXT preview updates as you work.
- Download TXT for a file in the selected encoding. Copy places the delimited text on your clipboard; the encoding and any byte-order mark apply only to the downloaded file.
Keep field boundaries, quotes and identifiers intact
A delimiter inside a value must not create another column. The writer quotes fields containing the chosen delimiter, quotes or line breaks and doubles embedded quotes. You can also quote every field or every nonnumeric field. Multiline cells stay multiline: this is not a fixed-width or one-line-per-cell formatter.
Leading zeros and long identifiers remain text; changing the separator does not reformat decimals or dates. Formula protection starts on and adds an apostrophe to formula-like text. Turn it off only when you deliberately need the original characters. To rearrange fields first, use Rename and reorder CSV columns.
Download one TXT file or convert a batch
UTF-8 without a BOM is the default. Downloads can also use UTF-8 with BOM, UTF-16 LE with BOM or Windows-1252. Windows-1252 export stops if a character cannot be represented, rather than replacing it with a question mark. If the input already looks garbled, correct its decoding before choosing the output encoding; Change CSV delimiter and encoding also provides a CSV result.
Batch conversion reads each selected file using the current import settings and writes the same output settings to separate TXT files. Multiple successful outputs arrive in a ZIP; a single success downloads directly, and failures are listed. Live tables are limited to 25 MiB, 100,000 rows, 250 columns and 2 million cells; files over the byte limit use streaming with a partial preview. Download includes the full file, subject to browser memory and output limits. Copy is unavailable for a partial preview. For the opposite direction, use Text to CSV.
Example: keep a comma and a line break in one field
This synthetic CSV uses the default TXT settings. Tabs separate the columns; the comma in the name stays ordinary text and the multiline note stays quoted. The output ends with CRLF.
sku,name,note 00731,"Desk, lamp","Line 1 Line 2"
sku name note 00731 Desk, lamp "Line 1 Line 2"
Questions and answers
Renaming changes only the filename. If the receiver expects a different separator, encoding, header or line ending, use these controls to rewrite the records. Confirm the result in its import preview.
Tab-separated text often fits a spreadsheet's paste workflow, but multiline and quoted fields depend on the receiving application. Check its preview. For a workbook that explicitly stores identifiers as text, use CSV to Excel.