We have decided to do a blog post about this topic due to the increasing amount of issues that users are experiencing when uploading from Excel to QuintaDB.

Excel has been adding decimal points in the number columns and alterations to our time feature that are unseen until after it is uploaded.

I have included instructions below on how to prevent this.

Step 1: Go to http://www.openoffice.org/

Step 2: Download the version pertaining to your operating system and install it.

Step 3: Open your Excel file WITH the new Open Office program (Right click on it and select "Open with". See the screenshot below:

Step 4: Let the file open and then click "Save as" in the top left corner. 

Step 5: Select the folder or location you want to keep your file and then in the drop down for file type, select "text CSV(.csv)". See screenshot:

Step 6: A message will appear letting you know that the some of the information may not be able to be saved in CSV format. Click the "Keep current format" box. Please see screenshot:

Step 7: A window will open. In the "Character set" dropdown, select "Unicode (UTF-8). It should default with a comma (,) as the default "Field delimiter" and with qutoation marks (") as the default "Text Delimiter". It should also default with "Save cell content as shown" checked. These settings are fine and do not need to be changed. Click "OK". Please see screenshot:

Step 8: A warning will appear letting you know that it only saved the active sheet. IMPORTANT - If you have multiple sheets within your workbook that need to be uploaded to QuintaDB you ill need to repeat this process for all of them. Please see screenshot:

Step 9: Upload that file to QuintaDB the same way you would any other file.

We hope this helps solve the mystery of the additional text and bad formatting.

Thanks for using QuintaDB!