How to save workbook as a CSV without it opening.

Whenever you save any file in Excel, the file you just saved is what becomes active in the window. If you save it as a different file type, that is what is now in the active window. This is not specific to csv files.

By the way, saving a csv file adds commas. It has nothing to do with Excel opening it. That is actually how a csv file is defined. It sounds like maybe you do not actually want a csv file.

What does your original data look like, and what do you want it to look like in the file you want to save?

You may need a custom format that is generated by using macros.

Originally Posted by zoestephens

Our consultant for the HR software told me it's doing that because I have opened the CSV file, and that I need to upload it without opening it first.

Your consultant is either poor at communicating or doesn't know what they're talking about. Merely opening a CSV file has no effect on the content. However, Farly945 may be onto something. If you export to CSV, and then save it again as you close the file, perhaps there is an issue.

Originally Posted by Farley945

I would open the document in notepad, you can see how the columns are supposed to look opening the file then change the format of the columns which are incorrect in the spreadsheet.

I was also going to recommend this as a diagnostic tool. You may be able to see what's wrong by looking at the data. The error message you showed is woefully inadequate to diagnose what the problem is.

Here is a small sample of an Excel file:

	A	B	C
1	This column is formatted as text	This column has numbers	This column has numbers too
2	01	1	001
3	01234	1,234	012

The first column is formatted as Text. This forces any number entered to be preserved exactly as entered. You can see that I have some leading zeroes.
The second column is just numbers, formatted using a comma separator.
The third column is numbers, with formatting that adds leading zeroes if a number has fewer than three digits.

I exported it to csv, and this was the result:

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Note that the leading zeroes are preserved in the first column, and the third column. However, note that the second row has a number using the U.S. convention for commas after the thousands' place. This comma forces the export to put quotes around the number so it is not interpreted as two separate numbers. This may be a problem for some programs that try to import this. I am not sure what numbering convention you use in Australia.

But there can be problems inherent in creating a CSV file when you have not specifically designed your original data file with that in mind.

My suggestion was not to use a different file type. My suggestion was to use macros to write the CSV file instead of letting Excel do whatever Excel does. You get absolute control of the content that way. But I can't help further without some kind of description of the file format and the data.