Skip to main content
OCLC Support

How do I open a TSV file from Collection Manager in Excel?

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF

Applies to

  • WorldShare Collection Manager

Answer

Because TSV files are not the default Excel format, simply double-clicking them often results in formatting errors. The best method is to open Excel first and import the data.

Steps for Windows (PC) users:

  1. Open a blank workbook in Microsoft Excel
  2. Go to the File menu and select Open
  3. Click Browse and navigate to the folder where your TSV file is located
  4. Important: In the bottom right corner of the file explorer window, change the file type dropdown from "All Excel Files" to "All Files (.)"
  5. Select your TSV file and click Open
  6. The Text Import Wizard should appear
    • Step 1: Select Delimited and click Next
    • Step 2: Under Delimiters, check the box for Tab (ensure Comma is unchecked). Click Next
    • Step 3 (Crucial for ISBNs): In the "Data Preview" window at the bottom, click on the column containing your ISBNs/Long numbers to highlight it. In the "Column data format" section above, select Text
  7. Click Finish

Steps for Mac (macOS) users:

  1. Open a blank workbook in Microsoft Excel
  2. Go to the very top menu bar, click File, and select Import..
  3. Select Text file (or CSV file) and click Import
  4. Navigate to your TSV file and click Get Data
  5. The Text Import Wizard will appear
    • Step 1: Select Delimited and click Next
    • Step 2: Under Delimiters, check the box for Tab. Click Next
    • Step 3 (Crucial for ISBNs): In the "Data Preview" window, click on the column containing your ISBNs to highlight it. Under "Column data format," select Text
  6. Click Finish
  7. Excel will ask where to put the data; ensure "Existing sheet" is selected and click OK

Additional information

If you open the file and your ISBNs look like 9.78E+12 or 9.78123E+12, Excel has automatically converted them into scientific notation to save space.

If you imported the data using the "Text" option in Step 3 above, this should not happen. However, if you opened the file directly and see this issue, follow these steps to fix it:

  1. Highlight the entire column containing the ISBNs (click the letter at the very top of the column)
  2. Right-click on the highlighted area and select Format Cells
  3. Under the Number tab, select Number from the category list
  4. Change "Decimal places" to 0
  5. Click OK

Page ID

67241