Troubleshooting: Exporting to Excel

Question: When I export from ShoppingCenters.com and open the file, the data is not in columns? How do I fix this?

Answer: You may run into this problem when your computer does not know how to handle CSV files. For both Windows and Mac computers, you will have to change your settings to open CSV files with Excel by default.

Windows PCs

1. For computers with Windows 7, you will have to go to the “Start button” at the bottom-left corner of the window, and then click Default Programs.
2. Click “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”.
3. The list is in alphabetical order, so look for “.csv” and double-click it.
4. Then under “Recommended Programs” click “Excel (desktop)”, Microsoft Corporation. Then place a check mark under “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”. Then click “OK”.

So that’s it and you don’t ever have to bother with that again. From now on any CSV file you download and save, will be opened automatically by Excel.

If you want more information on how to do this, click here.

Mac Computers

1. For computers with Mac OSX, first find the exported CSV file with the OS X Finder, right-click (or Control + Click) on the file.
2. Then hold down the Option key so that the “Open With” menu becomes “Always Open With”.
3. Look for Microsoft Excel, if it’s not in the main list of apps, click “Other” and you will be able to better find it there.

For more information on making Microsoft Excel the default program to open CSV files on Mac computers click here.

Question: Why does it take so long for the export to finish?

Answer: When exporting it may take a long time due to all the data from each column you are exporting. Remember, when you are exporting from the ShoppingCenters.com, you don’t have to select every column and sub-column that is all preselected by default. In fact, it will take longer to export if you just allow all these columns to be exported. So pick and choose carefully only what you need, if you want a faster export process. Look below to gain a better sense of how to do this:

Question: Why do some zip codes in my excel file only have 4 digits and not the standard 5 digits?

Answer: Depending on your version of Excel, it does not always recognize the zip code fields as zip codes unless you change the cell format of the zip code column. This occurs in states such as CT and NJ. A zip code of “06810” may be shown as “6820” until the format change is made. So if you want to mail the addresses from the export, be sure to change the formatting of the zip code column as follows:

1. Highlight the zip code column by click the top of the column letter. In this example we clicked column “G” to highlight all the zip codes in that particular column.
2. While keeping your cursor inside the column, right-click it and choose “Format Cells”.
3. Then the Format Cells window will pop up and stay in the “Number” tab. Look for “Special”. Then make sure that within “Special”, “Zip Code” is selected. Then click “OK”.
4. Now you should see the zip code column in proper format. Do this for each zip code column that may not be formatted properly.