CODEWITHSUNDEEP
excelcsvhyperlinkxlsx
Manuel Espinosa
Manuel Espinosa

Reputation: 118

How to convert an .xlsx file in a .CSV file maintaining clickable links

I have an xlsx file in which I have inserted some external links to the page to internet sites. There are also links to files in the folder that contains the worksheet. Now I should turn the xlsx file into csv format. I tried the "save as" function but the connections are lost and only the name is mantained (not URL or path). Simply renaming the workbook and putting ". csv" instead of ". xlsx" will keep the links if you open it with excel. However, opening it with a text editor makes the data unreadable. Would you have a solution?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1594

Answers (1)

ImaginaryHuman072889
ImaginaryHuman072889

Reputation: 5185

Short Answer

You can't. CSV files do not support clickable hyperlinks.

Long Answer

CSV files and XLSX files are really apples and oranges. XLSX files are complicated that encode extra information (besides the actual data in the spreadsheet) such as formatting, cell size, user permissions and passwords, etc. as opposed to CSV files which are essentially just plain text files which only consist of Comma-Separated Values (hence the acronym CSV).

This is why XLSX files are unreadable when you open them with a text editor. It's all encoded information. As opposed to CSV files which are just plain text, so they are readable with text editors.

Excel has the option of opening/editing/saving CSV files but this is only for convenience. Once a file which is edited with Excel is saved as a CSV file, only the cell values themselves are saved, and all other information (including any formatting, formulas, row/column sizes, sheet names, hyperlinks, or any other complex features) is lost.

Upvotes: 3

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