Fortunately, many of us use Excel in our business organizations. In any business organization, we use Excel to organize data as needed and make databases for the future. Moreover, one interesting thing is that we need to add various symbols in Excel for better representation of the data. But all of them can not be demonstrated in a single encoding. However, I have used Microsoft Office 365 for the purpose of demonstration, and you can use other versions according to your preferences. In this article, I will show you 3 suitable methods to change the encoding in Excel. Hence, read through the article to learn more and save time.
What is Encoding in Excel?
In general, you see texts or symbols on the screen that are actually stored in the text file as numerical values. However, the numerical values are converted into visual characters by your computer. It achieves this by employing a standard for encoding. Moreover, an encoding standard is a numbering technique that allows a numerical value to each text character in a character set. Characters from the alphabet, numbers, and other symbols can all be found in a character set. Fortunately, many alternative encoding standards exist to represent the character sets that are used in various languages because different languages frequently employ distinct sets of characters.
Usually, an Excel file will automatically format to Western European by default. You can change it to another available encoding format.
How to Change Encoding in Excel: 3 Suitable Methods
In this article, I will discuss how to change the encoding in Excel in 3 suitable and tricky ways. First, choose a sample dataset and then change the encoding of the Excel file in order to see all characters. However, the process is quite easy and simple. Hence, go through the following steps in order to understand the process properly. For the purpose of demonstration, I have used the following sample dataset.
1. Change Encoding Through Web Options in Excel
The Web Options in Excel help us to change the encoding in Excel. However, you have to take a dataset and change the encoding for the Excel file.
📌 Steps:
- Select the File tab.
- Then, choose Options.
- Go to the General section from the Advanced option.
- Click Web Options to change the encoding.
- A dialog box will open and move to the Encoding section of Web Options.
- Change the encoding from the Save this document as drop-down menu and press OK.
- Again, press OK.
- Finally, the encoding of your Excel file will be successfully changed.
However, Excel contains a large variety of encoding formats. So, you can choose your desired one.
Read More: How to Apply UTF 8 Encoding on CSV File in Excel
2. Use Text Import Wizard for Changing Encoding
You can change the encoding by using the Text Import Wizard. The process is quite simple and easy. However, you need to have a text file in order to import the data in Excel. Hence, go through the steps below. For the purpose of demonstration, I have utilized the following text file as a sample.
📌 Steps:
- Go to the Data tab and select From Text.
- Select the text file and click on Import.
- Select the desired encoding from File Origin and click Load.
- Finally, you will get your desired encoding as output. After some modifications, the image will appear as below.
3. Change Encoding While Saving Excel File
Last but not least, you can change the encoding while saving the file. However, you can change it from the File tab and this process is much similar to the first method. Hence, read through the following steps in order to complete the operation properly.
📌 Steps:
- Move to the File tab.
- Select More Options from the Save As option.
- Click on Web Options from the Tools drop-down menu.
- Select your desired encoding from the Encoding option.
- Now, press Save.
- Finally, you will get your desired result.
Read More: How to Check Encoding of Excel File
Download Practice Workbook
You can download the workbook used for the demonstration from the download link below.
Conclusion
These are all the steps you can follow to change the encoding in Excel. Overall, in terms of working with time, we need this for various purposes. I have shown multiple methods with their respective examples, but there can be many other iterations depending on numerous situations. Hopefully, you can now easily create the needed adjustments. I sincerely hope you learned something and enjoyed this guide. Please let us know in the comments section below if you have any queries or recommendations.
Related Articles
<< Go Back to Excel Encoding | Excel Files | Learn Excel
Get FREE Advanced Excel Exercises with Solutions!
