I have been asked to collect raw data in an SPSS compatible format,
preferably a .SAV file otherwise a .CSV file.

What is SPSS?

I am only familiar with "normal" excel workbooks. Can I save all the data
in an excel worksheet and convert it to an SPSS compatible format afterwards?
(I see that I can save it as a .csv file but it doesn't appear to do much -
just loses the formatting. Isn't .csv for saving text rather than data?)

Thanks, Scott