How do I save an excel spreadsheet as a semi-colon separated values file?

I am running excel and would like to export my file as a .scsv (semi-colon separated values) sheet instead of a .csv. Is there any way to do this?

ps. I can't do a .csv and search and replace commas with semi-colons because the fields contain commas already.

Solution 1:

How about doing Tab Delimited and replacing the tabs with semi-colons?

In excel: File -> Save As -> in Format select "Tab Delimited Text (.txt)" then his save.

Open the file in notepad and open the replace window. Since you can't tab directly into this window, copy a tab from your document and then paste it into the Find box and put your ; into the replace box. Then replace all.

I assume this would work because it is very rare to have tabs within an excel document.

Solution 2:

I don't think you can set output separator directly in Excel, but (assuming Windows) you could change OS list separator to ; - that's done in Regional Settings->Customize. Excel will use that setting outputing your csv files.

Solution 3:

Use LibreOffice Calc (it's a free download, and works on all major operating systems).

To save to semi-colon separated values:

1. Open your xlsx/csv file
2. File -> Save As...
3. Choose "Filter CSV" as the filter (should be default if your file name ends with .csv)
4. Tick "Edit filter settings" and press Save
5. When it asks for confirmation of the file format, press "Use Text CSV Format"
6. Change the "Field delimiter" to a semi-colon (you can type anything in here).
7. Press OK.

LO Calc will correctly handle commas and semi-colons in cell values.