How to open semicolon delimited CSV-files in US-version of Excel

Posted by Holgerwa on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Holgerwa
Published on 2010-08-26T13:02:14Z Indexed on 2011/01/04 10:56 UTC
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excel

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csv

When I double-click on a .csv file, it is opened in Excel. The csv-files have columns delimited with semicolons (not commas, but also a valid format).

Using a German Windows/Excel setup, the opened file is displayed correctly, the columns are separated where the semicolons existed in the csv-file.

But when I do the same on an (US-) English Windows/Excel setup, only one column is imported, showing the whole data including the semicolons in the first column.
(I don't have an English setup available for tests, users have reported the behavior)

I tried to change the list separator value in Windows regional settings, but that didn't change anything.

What can I do to be able to double-click-open those CSV-files on an English setup?

EDIT:
It seems to be the best solution not to rely on CSV-files in this case. I was hoping that there is some formatting for CSV-files that makes it possible to use them internationally.
The best solution seems that I'll switch to creating XLS-files.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and helpful tips!

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