Export as Excel Spreadsheet or CSV File

The ability to export all the records that are listed in a view, or only the selected ones, was introduced a few months ago. This new export feature has been delivering the export files it generates as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to users.

Following the release of this new feature, though, we learned that administrators also use this feature to prepare import files when a large number of records need a similar update. And because the Excel format has several limitations (e.g. no UTF-8 encoding, a maximum number of characters in a cell of 32.767, and a limit of 254 line breaks per cell), it is sometimes better to receive an export in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

That is why 4me users now have the option to export records in CSV format. The default format is still Excel to ensure that, in most cases, an extra click is not needed for specifying the export format.

When administrators are using the ‘Export…’ option from the Actions menu, or when they are performing an export of the records in their organization’s 4me account from the Settings console, they now also have the option to select the export format. In the past, those exports would always be delivered in CSV format. That is still the default, but now it is possible to select the Excel format before starting such exports.