As we develop the new DQM user interface we have also looked into feature requests around the exports that DQM creates. Three areas that have been prominent in these requests are:
- An export that is easier to import to business intelligence tools
- An export that is easier to sort so that we can look into different views of the data
- An export that does not have the limitation on the number of links that can be added (excel limitation)
Through our investigation we have determined that a CSV export format will address the needs that have been requested above. This is why exports for the new UI as well as new reports being made will be in a CSV format rather than xlsx.
Are there any other excel limitations to consider?
Excel does not open CSV files in UTF-8 by default, this means that content such as titles and URLs where foreign language or special characters are used may not display properly if they are opened in Excel by default.
To display foreign language text and special characters in Excel, follow the process below:
- Open Excel.
- Import the data by going to the Data ribbon.
- Choose From Text/CSV.
- Import Data.
- Select the file type of "CSV" and browse to your file.
- In the import wizard change the File_Origin to "65001 UTF" (or choose correct language character identifier).
- Set the delimiter to comma.
- Select where to import to and Finish.
