Exporting CSV and Text Files

The academy finance system does not open .xlsx directly. It needs comma-separated values — one row per department, no colours, no formulas.

CSV (Comma delimited) is plain text:

Department,Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4 English,12500,12800,12000,13200

James Okonkwo exported Northgate Academy's budget grid for the council portal. CSV carried the numbers; colours and =SUM(B2:E2) formulas stayed in the original NorthgateBudget.xlsx. All three courses use the same fictional school so you can see how Word, Excel, and PowerPoint work together on one real-world project.

Open Budgets with the department grid complete. File → Save As (or Save a Copy on the web). Choose a folder — e.g. Documents.

Save as type: **CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv) or CSV (Comma delimited). Name the file NorthgateBudget-Q1-export.csv**.

If Excel warns that only the active sheet is saved, click OK.

Reopen the .xlsx master file to keep working — treat CSV as a one-way snapshot unless you know the import rules.

The CSV row for English contains 12500,12800,12000,13200 — no £ symbols. The council system applies its own currency format. Your master NorthgateBudget.xlsx keeps =SUM(B2:E2) intact.

Some older imports expect tabs between columns, not commas.

File → Save As → Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)

Use when documentation says "tab-separated values" or TSV. Same warnings: one sheet, values only.

Double-clicking a CSV opens it directly — leading zeros and long invoice codes may break.

Safer path: Data → Get Data → From File → From Text/CSV. Pick the file. Preview columns. Set column types — Text for codes with leading zeros. Load to a new sheet for inspection before merging into Budgets.

James Okonkwo emailed the CSV to governors and edited totals in the CSV copy. The .xlsx master was out of date; the next export duplicated errors.

Treat NorthgateBudget.xlsx as the source of truth. Regenerate CSV after changes.

When you Save As CSV from Budgets, =SUM(B2:E2) in F2 exports as the calculated number only — CSV stores values, not formulas. The workbook has Budgets and Expenses sheets; CSV saves only the active sheet. Export each sheet separately if needed.