Importing CSV Files Into Excel
Now that you have downloaded a CSV file containing the transactions of your choice and the file has been saved on your desktop, follow these steps to load the file in Excel.- Launch Excel. If the CSV file on your desktop already looks like an Excel file (i.e. the icon that represents the file looks the same as the icons you normally see for Excel files), you can just double-click on the file to open it and vóila—you're done! Many users will find, however, that the CSV file does not automatically open in Excel when the icon is double-clicked. If this is you, use your start menu to launch the Excel application.
- Choose the "File" menu, then select "Open." Once the Excel application is open, click on the "File" menu at the upper-left of the window and select the "Open" option from the list of choices. You should be greeted by a smaller dialog window labeled "Open" that shows files on your computer system.
- Select your Desktop. In recent versions of Excel, this can be accomplished by clicking on the "Desktop" icon at the left of the "Open" dialog. In older versions of Excel, click on the Location drop-down list near the top of the window and select "Desktop" from the long list of places that appears.
- Set the file type to "All files." Click on the "Files of type" drop-down list near the bottom of the window and change the file type from "Excel files" to "All files." This will cause the "Open" dialog to show any CSV files on your desktop.
- Double-click on the "Download" file. Locate the CSV file (called "Download" or "Download.csv" depending on your version of Windows—you may have to search through a list of all the files on your desktop) in the list of files shown in the "Open" dialog and double-click on it.
That's all there is to it! You should now see an organized, sortable list of all of your recent PayPal transactions in Excel. If you're familiar with Excel already, you should be able to put this information to use in your financial records immediately to process, filter, arrange, search, or otherwise manipulate your PayPal records. Note, too, as was mentioned at the start of this article that similar steps can be followed to import your PayPal records into OpenOffice.org or Quattro Pro. Just have your spreadsheet application import or open a "CSV" or "comma separated values" file.
As a final note, keep in mind that if you want to continue to use this information, you should probably re-save it in Excel's standard format (or whatever standard format your spreadsheet uses) for convenience. To do this, click on the "File" menu at the upper-left of the Excel window and choose the "Save As" option. Then, choose "Microsoft Excel Workbook" from the "Save as type" drop-down list near the bottom of the "Save As" dialog that appears.
Happy bookkeeping!
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