As a software developer who integrates Microsoft Excel using .csv files, I'd
like to see the ability to specify an environment option which would cause
all .csv files to be loaded as text rather than general. I'm not talking
about "importing"; the way that works is fine. I'm talking about opening a
..csv file in Excel, which automatically uses general importation. This
strips leading zeroes which can be counter to what is desired from a download
from a server. These are often IDs/Keys to records. Once opened as text,
columns which are numeric could then be specified as such by the user, but
when opened as general, the leading data is lost. Opening .csv files is the
usual way when automating download and launch of a .csv in Excel; importation
is much more difficult to automate. Note: I am also a professor who teaches
Microsoft Office at Wesley College, DE.

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