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How can I set Excel to always import all columns of CSV files as Text?

Fresh7 days ago
Mar 15, 2026207016 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

Though I try to avoid it, I occasionally have to open a CSV file in Excel. When I do, it formats columns containing numbers, which makes them useless for my purposes. As far as I can tell, the only way to prevent this from happening on import is to rename the file so the extension isn't .csv and use the import wizard to specify the format of each column individually. For files with 50-60 columns, this is impractical. Since every answer for this oft-asked question on the internet suggests either some means of converting the formatted numbers back once the file is open (which won't work for me - I want to solve the general problem, not a few specific cases) or manually selecting the format type of each column (which I don't want to do), I'm looking for a way to set a global preference or style such that all columns of all CSV files opened are always formatted as text. I know about "armoring" the numbers with quotes, too, but the files I get don't come like that and I was hoping to avoid…

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Fix for: How can I set Excel to always import all columns of CSV files as Text?

Low Risk

How to open CSVs in Excel Good way Excel → Data → Get external data → Select all columns with Shift and choose Text Upside: Treats all values correctly as text without any exception Downside: More steps than a simple Double-click Bad way Open a CSV with Double Click or Excel's Open with dialog Downside: Excel's internal CSV handler misinterprets values with a leading or sign as a formula rather than text Downside: You will lose leading zeros from binary values like due to Excel's auto detected …

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