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File formats, character encoding, and spreadsheet tools
The roundtrip tools all make use of spreadsheets, and some tools make use of additional ZIP archives.
File formats and character encoding:
- All spreadsheets must use CSV (comma-separated values) spreadsheets.
- CSV is a non-proprietary spreadsheet format that can be opened by all spreadsheet tools.
- While it does not support things like cell highlighting and text styling, it is very reliable, portable, and accessible.
- All spreadsheets must use Unicode UTF-8 character encoding.
- UTF-8 is the most commonly used character encoding system used online.
- Most non-English keyboards are developed to use UTF-8 encoding to ensure that their characters are accurately and reliably displayed across operating systems and web browsers.
- Certain imports must use ZIP archives.
- ZIP archives compress files and folder directories to reduce their size and facilitate transfer of larger files.
- All operating systems have built-in tools to create and open ZIP archives – they are often found under “compress” actions.
- Third-party ZIP tools can be used, but are not required.
Spreadsheet tools:
In general, any spreadsheet tool that supports the above file format and character encodings requirements should work fine. We have some recommendations based on our testing and experiences:
- Google Sheets:
- Good for online/collaborative work.
- Works on all operating systems and browsers.
- Supports CSV export.
- Defaults to UTF-8 encoding.
- Free, but requires a Google account to use, and in certain cases using a service like this may not be appropriate, especially if sensitive information is being entered.
- LibreOffice and OpenOffice
- Good for offline/local work.
- Work on all operating systems.
- Supports saving as CSV.
- Supports UTF-8 encoding.
- Free to download.
- Microsoft Excel is NOT recommended.
- Defaults to XLS, not as easy to use CSV.
- Defaults to a proprietary encoding, and does not reliably support UTF-8 encoding.
- Note that on Windows, sometimes it will work well enough, but on macOS, these issues cannot be reliably avoided.
- At this time, we have not thoroughly tested any of Microsoft’s online services (eg: Office 365) and are not sure how they address these issues.