Make excel auto interpret a file extension as a CSV format

Originally Posted by JLGWhiz

It probably could be done with advanced programming, because it would require getting into the VBA application source code and modifying some of that. I am not familiar with the .etf software so don't know if maybe that could be modified, or if it is compatible with Excel. But from what I have read about it, it can be opended with Windows, but not directly into Excel.

you apparently didnt really read my original post.....

Its literally Just a csv file that the software renames as ".etf"

if I rename it to .csv... it opens in excel directly as a csv with no issues



I'm trying to find out if theres a way to tell excel to automatically treat it as a csv without having to rename it first

Right-click on a file with a .etf extension, then select properties, and then you can choose an App to use to open the file (i.e. Excel).

Then when you double-click on an .etf file it will open as if it were a CSV file.

Is that what you want?

Hope this helps.

Pete

Originally Posted by Pete_UK

Right-click on a file with a .etf extension, then select properties, and then you can choose an App to use to open the file (i.e. Excel).

Then when you double-click on an .etf file it will open as if it were a CSV file.

Is that what you want?

Hope this helps.

Pete

this does not work

if it isnt named csv, it treats it as a text file

Originally Posted by dosydos

i didn't watch this with sound as i am at work, but it seems like this could be a shortcut to change A LOT of file extensions quickly. So instead of changing one .etf to csv at a time you could do 100's in a couple of second.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCYqLCb7vhY



*** This is not my video***

Does nobody actually read what I am looking for?

I'm not trying to change the exiting file extension
I'm not trying to associate a file extension with excel


I'm looking for a way to make excel automatically treat it as a csv even though it is not named csv.
so that when I open it, it parses the file just the same as if the file extension was csv


I can associate the file, but because its not named csv, it will open it as a text file... which shows it as one line with commas instead of making the values individual cells

Originally Posted by JLGWhiz

I think we all have read the post and understand what you are asking. What we are trying to tell you is the an .etf file is not a .csv file, no matter how it looks when you open it in something like 'Notepad'. If it were the same, then it would open in Excel simply by using the Excel application to open it. From what I have read, Windows opens the file with Windows Music. That should tell you it is not a .csv file.

you arent understanding

it is indeed a csv formatted file
this is not a music etf file... it happens to have an extension called eft because its named for the type of table it is in the software it is exported from
it could very well be called a .867 or a .ppp or a .not or a .ddd... or any 3 letters or numbers... it is still just a file that is a properly formatted csv file with a different set of letters for the extension

simply renaming this etf file to a .csv extension....allows it to open in excel and show up exactly as expected... cells formatted in a table

if I leave it as an etf named extension I can open it in excel, but excel treats it as text instead of a csv formatted file

I'm trying to find out if there is any way to force excel to automatically recognize this file as a csv format when I try to open it





again... literally... if I do nothing other than right click the file and rename it...edit the file extension to csv.....it will open like any other csv file excel tries to open



it IS A CSV file... just with a differently named extension

Originally Posted by s2h

is there a way to tell excel to always open a specific extension as if it were a csv without having to rename the file or use the text file wizard every time?

Simply impossible.