Excel isn't as smart as it thinks it is and opening a .csv file with a double-click (which is what the suggested methods mimic), you have to be certain that you don't have any zip codes or other codes that begin with leading zeros because Excel assumes they are numbers and numbers don't have leading zeros so my zip is converted from 06614 to 6614. And then there is the problem with long numbers. Many applications use long numeric strings as record IDs. Those IDs may only contain numbers (such as CC numbers and SSN) but they are codes and codes need to be defined as text. Excel converts these to scientific notation and that causes you to loose the true value of the ID.