The export sheet
- Open the file and press ⌘E.
- Choose the format — or one of your saved formats.
- Choose the rows: all, only those the filter shows, or only the selected ones — with a row limit if you like.
- Choose the columns, tick or untick them, and drag them into the order the receiver wants. The choice is kept for the file, so the next export starts where this one left off.
- Set the format's options and save. A preview shows the first rows as they will come out.
Which format for which job
| You need | Export as |
|---|---|
| A file for Excel users | Excel .xlsx, with a frozen header — codes with leading zeros stay text |
| A file for LibreOffice or Numbers | OpenDocument .ods |
| An API or a web app | JSON (objects or arrays), nested JSON, JSON Lines |
| A data pipeline | Parquet, Avro, ORC, Arrow |
| A database | SQLite database, or SQL INSERT statements with CREATE TABLE |
| Statistics software | SPSS, Stata, SAS transport, R data, MATLAB |
| A mainframe | Fixed-length EBCDIC records and a COBOL copybook |
| Something to print or send | PDF (PDF/A too), Word .docx, rich text |
| Documentation | Markdown, HTML, LaTeX, AsciiDoc |
| Another CSV | CSV or TSV with the separator, quoting, encoding and line endings you choose |
Options that come up often
- Empty values: leave them empty, or write
NULL, a dash or anything else. - Decimal separators: keep them as written, or normalise every number to a point or a comma.
- Column names: include them or not.
- Encoding and BOM for text formats; sheet name for workbooks; table name and rows per INSERT for SQL.
Presets and automation
Save any combination as a named format in Settings ▸ Formats; ten are built in, including Excel (European),
Excel (US), RFC 4180 and a PDF report. For conversions that happen every day, AppleScript can do it without the sheet:
export table to "~/Desktop/sales.xlsx" — the ending picks the format.
Try it on your own file
Intact CSV Editor is free for seven days, fourteen with an account — every feature, no card. Download the free trial.
