How can you change Mac excel 2011 to separate using commas, not semicolons?

Excel for Mac currently has no setting to change the CSV separator from the app itself.

The chosen value separator depends on your Region and your region's default number separators. To change them, go to “System Preferences” > “Language & Region”:

Then you need to verify the number separators in “Advanced …” > “General”.

Here are the rules Excel uses to determine how it saves CSV files:

If your language / region / locale uses comma (,) for decimal separation (i.e., π (pi) is displayed as 3,1416), then Excel will save using semi-colons (;)
If it uses a dot (., a.k.a. full stop or period), then it will delimit with commas (,).

Note:

You need to change your general region for it to work. For example, if your region is Germany (which uses , for decimal separation), Excel will always use ; for CSVs, even when changing the decimal point under “Advanced” settings. You could, for example, if you want , as a CSV separator, choose the United States as a region.
You need to relaunch Excel for it to notice. Quit the app, change the region, then start it again.

Tetsujin

Posted 2015-10-19T13:50:13.160

Reputation: 22 456

1Thank you but it doesn't work. I've tried both of your solutions.... – Cris Cole – 2015-10-19T14:42:31.743

Works repeatably here, switch both number & currency comma separators to 'dot' separators & vice versa. Relaunch Excel, open xlsx file, save as csv or windows csv, it saves with the alternate comma/semi-colon – Tetsujin – 2015-10-19T14:57:29.390

I tried again, it doesn't work.... both http://i59.tinypic.com/2z4lt3m.png AND http://i57.tinypic.com/13yfbci.jpg

– Cris Cole – 2015-10-19T15:34:34.180

I haven't tested when the language is set to Italian, but it might be worth testing with yours set to UK English - as it's definitely switching here – Tetsujin – 2015-10-19T16:54:19.003

4changing the decimal separator didnt work for me. I add to change the whole "region" from "France" to "United States". – cyrilchampier – 2016-03-09T15:51:28.183

I expect this is going to be one of those settings that depends on your native language, input language & chosen separator. – Tetsujin – 2016-03-09T16:15:18.770

1I tried to clarify your post – I noticed that the actual decimal point settings don't matter to Excel. It's the region that needs to change. So for me, living in Germany, I had to change it to US to correctly interpret CSV with commas. I consider this a bug or at least a lack of features in Excel, which should have an option to override the system's settings. – slhck – 2017-08-01T09:50:22.127

Unfortunately it's a compromise because we are forced yo set the region to something that it's not the "actual" region. – Herman Toothrot – 2019-11-12T14:24:29.020

How can you change Mac excel 2011 to separate using commas, not semicolons?

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