Loading a CSV in Excel

You may find yourself wanting to load a CSV export of your timeline in Excel so you can edit it.

Before you to this route though, try exporting your timeline as an Excel file (not a CSV) because it does not have the issue this is about to describe.

The Problem: Excel automatically reformats dates

If you load a CSV file in Excel, it will try to convert the start and end date columns into dates.

This wi change the date format which can cause problems if you try to import the CSV back into Preceden.

The Fix: Manually import the CSV into Excel

If you just load the CSV in Excel, then Excel will try to figure out all the column types for you, including automatically converting anything that looks like a date into a date.

But you can also manually import CSV files into Excel and tell Excel exactly how to import each column:

1. Create a new blank spreadsheet

2. Go to File > Import

3. Specify that you want to import a CSV file

4. Select the CSV file you downloaded from Preceden

5. Select that the CSV file is Delimited

This means that each column is separated by some special character (commas in this case):

6. Tell Excel that the file is delimited by commas

7. Select the start_date column and then tell Preceden to treat it as a Text field

8. Repeat this for the end_date column

9. Click Finish

If Excel asks you where you want to put the data, you can either select Existing Sheet or New Sheet.

Excel will now display the start and end date columns exactly as they are formatted in Preceden itself:

Now you can change their values without worrying that Preceden won't be able to interpret it when you re-import it into Preceden.