You probably need to make sure that you either ensure the encoding of the source file is UTF-8 (for example) or set the encoding of the CSV when you save the target file here:

If you have a lot of these files it makes sense the change the encoding of the source first.  A great application for this is here:

https://appstore.sdl.com/language/app/fec-file-encoding-converter/788/

It's a matter of how the characters are encoded, as Paul wrote. If you double-click on the CSV file, Excel assumes it's ANSI encoded, and will interpret the characters accordingly, which will lead to these results if your file is UTF-8:

If you open the file in Excel using the "Get external data from text" in the Data tab on the ribbon, you can select which encoding you want Excel to assume:

This way you can get a UTF-8 encoded CSV file to import correctly into Excel.

Daniel

Unknown said:

If you double-click on the CSV file, Excel assumes it's ANSI encoded, and will interpret the characters accordingly, which will lead to these results if your file is UTF-8

Not necessarily... if you encode the file as utf-8 and include a BOM it works just fine.  Try the attached for example.

Christos Papadimitriou.zip

Both files display the chars correctly in a text editor.  But if you double click and open in Excel only the utf-8 file will display correctly.  This is because I added a BOM to the file so Excel knows what to do with it.

Ah, I did not know that. You are right, I just converted my little test CSV to UTF-8 BOM, and it behaves as you describe.

Daniel

Hi both,

Thank you for the assistance on this one. I have tried changing the file encoding using File Encoding Converter (FEC) but to no avail. I run FEC, select the translated file (translated into Greek), associate its encoding with a suitable one (Greek (Windows) as UTF-8 does not display characters correctly), and run 'Start processing' on FEC. However, after the processing is done, I open the translated file in Excel, and the Greek characters are still not displayed correctly. Any ideas on why FEC does not change the encoding?

Best,

Chris

Hi 

I don't use the FEC, only Notepad++, which is also free, and there's a difference between "encode in" and "convert to"...

Could you post a little test file, just containing one or two lines? We'd be much wiser after that.

Daniel

This change has to be done before you translate the file.  Otherwise you are only adding encoding to a file that is already wrong.

I also think you do need to use UTF-8 and a BOM.  A simple text file has no other way of telling Excel how to handle the chars.

Hi both,

As requested, please find on this link the source CSV file and the Greek translation: drive.google.com/open

Paul, from what I understand, I need to first change the encoding on the source file to UTF-8, translate it into Trados, generate the target file, and then open it on Excel? I have done this, and the Greek characters are still not displayed properly.

I'm suspecting that when I process the source file on File Encoding Converter (FEC), the file encoding is not successfully converted to UTF-8. The reason I'm suspecting it is that the modification date on the properties of the source file does not change after the processing of FEC. Could you please confirm the steps in order to convert the encoding of a source CSV file on FEC?

Many thanks.

Chris

Your Greek file is saved in ISO 8859-7 encoding.
So you need to treat it correspondingly...

• either enforce this encoding when opening the file in Excel (e.g. by changing the extension from CSV to TXT to stop Excel from trying to be an I-know-what-is-best-for-you smartass and give the control back to the user's hands)
  in this case you MUST open the file in Excel using File / Open, NOT by doubleclicking the file in Explorer!!!
  only this way will Excel allow you to select the file encoding...
  
• or open the file using this encoding in your favorite text editor and then "Save As" in UTF-8 and only then open the re-saved CSV in Excel

Unknown said:

Could you please confirm the steps in order to convert the encoding of a source CSV file on FEC?

I created a short video to explain to you how to do this... hope it helps: