Export CSV with UTF-8 Encoding in LibreOffice Calc
LibreOffice Calc provides robust text export capabilities that allow users to customize character sets, delimiters, and text formatting. When saving spreadsheets as plain text or CSV files, enabling the filter settings dialog gives you complete control over encodings such as UTF-8, ensuring data compatibility across different operating systems, databases, and software applications.
How to Access Custom Character Sets During Export
To choose a specific character encoding like UTF-8 when exporting from LibreOffice Calc, follow these steps:
- Open your spreadsheet in LibreOffice Calc.
- Go to the top menu and select File > Save As… (or File > Export…).
- In the file dialog, set the Filter or Save as type dropdown to Text CSV (.csv) or Text (.txt).
- Check the box labeled Edit filter settings located near the file format selection.
- Choose your file destination, enter a filename, and click Save.
- If prompted to confirm the file format, select Use Text CSV Format.
Configuring the “Export Text File” Dialog
Once you proceed, the Export Text File dialog will appear. This window contains the necessary options for encoding and layout customization:
- Character Set: Open this dropdown to select Unicode (UTF-8) or any other desired encoding, such as UTF-16, Western Europe (ISO-8859-1 / Windows-1252), or legacy regional character sets.
- Field Delimiter: Define how cell data is separated.
Common options include comma (
,), semicolon (;), tab, or custom characters. - String Delimiter: Specify the character used to
enclose text values, typically double quotes (
") or single quotes ('). - Quote all text cells: Forces text fields to be enclosed in the string delimiter, regardless of whether they contain special characters or spaces.
- Save cell content as shown: Ensures numbers and dates are exported with the exact formatting displayed in the sheet rather than raw underlying values.
- Fixed column width: Formats the output into fixed-width text columns rather than using delimiters.
After configuring your preferences, click OK to generate the export file with your specified character set.