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GLOBAL CSV HANDOFF · ENCODING

How to convert CSV encoding when exchanging files with global offices

Open encoding conversion

A file sent between London, New York, Madrid, Seoul, or Singapore should not be assigned an encoding from the country name alone. Confirm the source export and destination import specifications, then preview and convert without changing the business data.

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Related tool: Convert encoding & format

Business scenario: move a legacy Western European export to UTF-8

A London ERP exports a Windows-1252 customer file for teams in Madrid and Singapore. The destination workbook supports UTF-8, so the agreed delivery format is UTF-8 with BOM. If the importer required BOM-free UTF-8, that documented requirement would take priority.

LocaCSV input and output encoding support matrix
EncodingInput CSVOutput CSVTypical use and verification
UTF-8Auto-detect or select manuallyChoose with or without BOMThe first candidate for new multilingual exchange. Follow the importer's BOM requirement.
Windows-1252Select manuallySupportedSeen in Western legacy systems. Test €, accented names, and smart punctuation.
Shift_JIS (CP932)Auto-detect or select manuallySupportedSeen in Japanese legacy systems. Test CP932-specific characters in the importer.
CP949Select manuallySupportedSeen in Korean legacy systems. Do not assume every EUC-KR label means CP949.
Big5Select manuallySupportedSeen in Traditional Chinese legacy systems. Test organization-specific characters.
GB18030Select manuallySupportedSeen in Simplified Chinese legacy systems. Verify the source instead of inferring it from a GBK label; unrepresentable output stops.
ISO-8859-1Select manuallySupportedUse only for systems that explicitly require Latin-1. Unlike Windows-1252, bytes 0x80–0x9F are control characters.

  • UTF-8

    Input CSV
    Auto-detect or select manually
    Output CSV
    Choose with or without BOM
    Typical use and verification
    The first candidate for new multilingual exchange. Follow the importer's BOM requirement.

  • Windows-1252

    Input CSV
    Select manually
    Output CSV
    Supported
    Typical use and verification
    Seen in Western legacy systems. Test €, accented names, and smart punctuation.

  • Shift_JIS (CP932)

    Input CSV
    Auto-detect or select manually
    Output CSV
    Supported
    Typical use and verification
    Seen in Japanese legacy systems. Test CP932-specific characters in the importer.

  • CP949

    Input CSV
    Select manually
    Output CSV
    Supported
    Typical use and verification
    Seen in Korean legacy systems. Do not assume every EUC-KR label means CP949.

  • Big5

    Input CSV
    Select manually
    Output CSV
    Supported
    Typical use and verification
    Seen in Traditional Chinese legacy systems. Test organization-specific characters.

  • GB18030

    Input CSV
    Select manually
    Output CSV
    Supported
    Typical use and verification
    Seen in Simplified Chinese legacy systems. Verify the source instead of inferring it from a GBK label; unrepresentable output stops.

  • ISO-8859-1

    Input CSV
    Select manually
    Output CSV
    Supported
    Typical use and verification
    Use only for systems that explicitly require Latin-1. Unlike Windows-1252, bytes 0x80–0x9F are control characters.

Example input CSV

Keep an untouched copy and record the source system's export setting. This example contains names and punctuation commonly represented in Windows-1252.

customers_western_europe.csv (Windows-1252)
Office_Code,Company,Contact,City,Credit_Limit_EUR,Updated
ES-MAD,Soluciones García S.L.,Lucía García,Madrid,8450.75,31/07/2026
FR-LYO,Atelier Rhône,Chloé Bernard,Lyon,12600.00,31/07/2026
DE-MUC,München Technik GmbH,Lukas Weiß,München,9800.50,31/07/2026

Steps to convert the encoding in LocaCSV

  1. Ask the receiving team for the required encoding, BOM setting, and delimiter. Do not infer them from the country alone.
  2. Open Character encoding & format conversion and select one CSV up to 50 MiB.
  3. Confirm Auto for UTF-8 or Shift_JIS, or manually select ISO-8859-1, Windows-1252, CP949, Big5, or GB18030 according to the source specification.
  4. Check names, addresses, currency symbols, dates, and column boundaries in the preview; correct the input delimiter if necessary.
  5. Choose the agreed output encoding and comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe delimiter.
  6. Run the conversion, review row counts and warnings, and save the result for a destination-system test.
Convert encoding & format

How to verify encoding, delimiters, and rows

  • Input data rows equal output data rows
  • Representative names such as García, Chloé, München, and the € symbol remain correct
  • Postal codes, IDs, decimals, and date strings have not been reformatted
  • The receiving system sees the agreed comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe columns
  • A small test import succeeds with the documented BOM setting before the full file is sent

Example output after conversion

The visible fields and order stay the same. A UTF-8 BOM output changes the file bytes and adds a marker at the beginning so Excel can identify UTF-8 more reliably.

customers_global_UTF8.csv
Office_Code,Company,Contact,City,Credit_Limit_EUR,Updated
ES-MAD,Soluciones García S.L.,Lucía García,Madrid,8450.75,31/07/2026
FR-LYO,Atelier Rhône,Chloé Bernard,Lyon,12600.00,31/07/2026
DE-MUC,München Technik GmbH,Lukas Weiß,München,9800.50,31/07/2026

Common mistakes

  • Choosing Windows-1252 merely because the recipient is in Europe, even though its importer expects UTF-8.
  • Expecting Auto to identify every regional encoding. Auto only detects UTF-8 and Shift_JIS.
  • Converting multilingual names to a legacy encoding that cannot represent them. LocaCSV stops instead of writing question marks.
  • Saving over a file while it is displayed incorrectly in Excel, which can destroy the original byte sequence.
  • Treating a one-column import as encoding damage when the delimiter is actually wrong.

When to convert once and when to automate delivery

The file body, file name, headers, and cell values are processed in the browser and are not sent to an external API. Apply your organization's access and retention rules to the source and converted files as well.

  • Good fit: one CSV up to 50 MiB using a supported source and target encoding
  • Good fit: previewing the file and rejecting unrepresentable output characters
  • Not a fit: UTF-16, EUC-JP, arbitrary delimiters, or selectable line endings
  • Not a fit: deciding an unknown destination specification on the user's behalf