Can I import an Excel file containing Japanese or Chinese characters into Accompa?

Do you need to import an Excel (or other spreadsheet) file that contains Japanese or Chinese characters into Accompa?

As long as you can create a CSV file with UTF-8 (also referred to as "Unicode - UTF8") encoding - you can import it without any problems. The Japanese and Chinese characters characters will be saved properly within Accompa.

If you're using Microsoft Excel to create your CSV file, you may run into an issue:

• When you're using Japanese or Chinese characters - Microsoft Excel does not generate a UTF-8 compliant CSV file that retains the Japanese and Chinese characters.

To resolve this issue, please do the following.

On a Windows machine

• Download OpenOffice - this is a free, open-source office suite, much like "Microsoft Office". It will take a while to download. After the download completes, install it on your PC.
  • If your company prevents downloading/installing software, you may have to do this on your home PC.
• Open your Excel file with "OpenOffice Calc".
  • "Calc" is the spreadsheet program in the OpenOffice suite - i.e. their equivalent of Excel.
• Click "File > Save As", and select "Text CSV (.csv)" as File Type. Then, click the "Save" button.
• In the dialog box that appears, select "Unicode (UTF-8)" in the "Character set" field. Then click "OK".
  • A proper CSV file will be created, with UTF-8 encoding and retaining all Japanese and Chinese characters.
• Now import the CSV file into Accompa - we recommend doing a test run with just 5 requirements first, before importing the entire CSV file.

The reason this works is - OpenOffice properly creates UTF-8 encoded CSV files containing Japanese or Chinese characters. Excel does not seem to create proper CSV files in this scenario.

On a Mac

Use the "Numbers" application instead of Excel.