- Rename the file to have a TXT extension. For example, if the file name is Account.CSV rename it to Account.TXT.
- Open Excel
- Select File, Open from the menu bar
- Change Files of type to All Files
- Browse to the .txt file
- Highlight the file and click Open
- Select the Delimited option and click Next
- Unmark the Tab checkbox, mark the Comma checkbox, and click Next
- Highlight the first column that has data changed to a date format (in the example, the account number column) and select Text as the Column data format
- Repeat step 8 for each column automatically formatted as a date
- Click Finish. The file opens in Excel and does not format the columns as dates.