A CSV to Excel converter that keeps zip codes, dates and accents right
Double-clicking a CSV in Excel often strips leading zeros from phone numbers, turns product codes into dates and mangles accented names. Your todo.is agent reads the file with the right delimiter and encoding, sets a type for each column, and hands back a tidy .xlsx with headers, filters and widths set.
The prompt
- Convert the attached CSV into an Excel workbook: [ATTACH THE CSV]. The delimiter is [DELIMITER] and the text is in [ENCODING]. Keep these columns as text so leading zeros stay: [TEXT COLUMNS]. Make dates real Excel dates in [DATE FORMAT] and amounts real numbers. Bold and freeze the header row, turn on filters and fit column widths. If several CSVs are attached, put each on its own sheet named after the file. Tell me how many rows you read and flag any row with a wrong number of columns. Send me the .xlsx.
What to change
- [ATTACH THE CSV]: Attach one or more .csv or .txt files. Large exports are fine up to 50 MB.
- [DELIMITER]: E.g. "comma", "semicolon" (common in European exports), "tab" or "detect it".
- [ENCODING]: E.g. "UTF-8", "Windows-1252" or "not sure, detect it".
- [TEXT COLUMNS]: E.g. "Zip, Phone, SKU" or "none".
- [DATE FORMAT]: E.g. "DD/MM/YYYY", "MM/DD/YYYY" or "YYYY-MM-DD".
Example result
- CSV to Excel: shop_orders_export.csv
- Semicolon-delimited · UTF-8 with BOM · 8,412 data rows · 14 columns
- Column types set
- • Order ID: text (kept as "000184" instead of 184)
- • Order date: Excel date, shown as DD/MM/YYYY
- • Customer: text, accents fixed ("Müller", "Gonçalves" display correctly)
- • Zip: text, leading zeros kept ("02134")
- • SKU: text, so "3-11" is not turned into 3 November
- • Qty: whole number
- • Unit price, Total: number with 2 decimals; the decimal comma "12,50" became 12.50
- • Paid: TRUE/FALSE
- Formatting
- • Header row in bold, frozen, with filters on
- • Column widths fitted to content (max 50 characters)
- • Sheet named "shop_orders_export"
- Problems found
- • Rows 2,118, 5,940 and 7,003 had 15 fields instead of 14. A customer note contained a semicolon without quotes. These rows are highlighted orange with the original line in a "Raw" column so you can fix them
- • 41 rows had an empty Order date. They are kept and left blank
- Totals check
- Sum of Total in the CSV: 412,880.35. Sum in the workbook: 412,880.35. Match
- Open the file in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. Reply if you want a pivot table by month or a second sheet with totals per customer.
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt and fill in the delimiter, encoding and the columns that must stay as text.
- Paste it on the Today screen in todo.is and attach your CSV, or send it to your agent on WhatsApp or Telegram.
- Your agent reads the file, sets column types and reports rows it could not read cleanly.
- Download the .xlsx. Ask for a change like "split the Name column into first and last" in the same chat.
Tips for a better result
- If you are not sure of the delimiter or encoding, just say "detect it". Your agent checks the first lines before converting.
- List ID-like columns (zip codes, phone numbers, SKUs, account numbers) as text. That is the most common thing Excel breaks.
- Say whether dates are day-first or month-first. "03/04/2026" means different days in Europe and the US.
- Exporting the same CSV every week? Make it a recurring to-do and forward the new file each time.
CSV to Excel converter: FAQ
- Why does Excel remove leading zeros from my CSV? Excel guesses that a column like 02134 is a number and drops the zero. Setting the column to text before loading keeps it, which is what your agent does for the columns you list.
- How do I open a semicolon CSV in Excel correctly? Excel only splits on the delimiter set in your system region, so semicolon files can end up in one column. Converting to .xlsx with the right delimiter removes the problem for anyone who opens it.
- Is there a row limit? An Excel sheet holds up to 1,048,576 rows. If your CSV is bigger, your agent can split it over several sheets or files.
- Can I convert several CSV files into one workbook? Yes. Attach them all and each one becomes its own sheet, or ask to stack them into one sheet if the columns match.
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