How to export a Google Docs Spreadsheet into a Mass Mailer Using CSV

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Google Docs is a useful online application that many people use to create electronic documents such as text documents and spreadsheets. Today, we will be talking about Google Docs Spreadsheet application that lets you manage spreadsheets online. Suppose you have a mailing list created in Google Docs Spreadsheet that you need to export into a mass mailer such as Email Marketing Courier. If you open Email Marketing Courier, you will not find any option to import Google Docs documents.

Solution… Almost any database, spreadsheet management and mass mailing software supports CSV import and export, and we are going to use it. CSV format was invented in 1960s and became a standard ever since. You can use CSV to transfer database information between different applications or use it to backup information you have in your software products that support CSV.

CSV a plain text file format, normally in unicode UTF-8 or UTF-16 text encoding. Every line of the file contains information about a single entity such as customer in the form of descriptive fields (such as name, email address, phone number, etc.) separated by a comma.

To have a better idea about how a CSV file looks like, consider these two examples shown below. These examples contain information about customers. Every customer has Order, Name, Email, Product and Website properties:

or

The difference between these two examples is that the second example contains quotes around its data fields. The quote character is called Qualifier. Some spreadsheet processors add it for better clarity in case if commas are used in the fields. Remember, when you import such a file in other software such as mass mailer, specify this character as Qualifier or Text Delimiter. By default, Google Docs Spreadsheet does not use any qualifiers.

How to create a CSV file in Google Docs Spreadsheet

1. Start Google Docs Spreadsheet.

2. Open your spreadsheet file.

3. Use the File->Download As->CSV (current sheet) command from the menu bar to open the Save dialog box.

4. Your web browser will show you a dialog box allowing you to choose whether you want to open the file or just save it. You need to select Save.

5. Press Ok, specify file location and in a few seconds a new CSV file will be created at the location you have specified.