csv files

I somehow have downloaded an Excel file in a .csv format. How does one delete this file from the computer?

Just drag it to the waste basket and delete it.

The should do it. CSV files are basically data separated by commas so it can be imported into a variety of programs.

Thank you for the quick reply. My apologies, but I neglected to mention that I cannot find this file anywhere on my computer except in the Excel menu. I can edit it and open and close it, but once closed there is nothing I can find to drag to the trash.

If it shows up in the Excel menu, it should be located in your Documents folder since that's the default location for all Office files. (unless you changed the default location)

If I enter the file name, any part of the file name, or just csv in the finder, no such file can be found. It only shows up, and can be opened, from the file menu of Excel. This is a file I received from Amazon listing my orders for the year. I cannot explain how it came to be a .csv file. I could leave it where it is, but it's challenging to find a way to delete it.

Perhaps the *.CSV file is still sitting in your downloads folder? Have you looked there?

I have looked everywhere. But if it lurks somewhere, shouldn't it show up in a finder search?

Are you running Lion? If you are, it may be tucked away in your user library folder, in which case it's hidden and won't show up in Spotlight.

Let's try this: Open your Terminal application. (Applications, Utilities, Terminal.app) type the following at the prompt and then press enter:

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

That will unhide your user library folder. Once it's visible from Finder, search again for the *.csv file.

I think I remember reading somewhere that there are times Spotlight does not handle partial filenames well. Particularly if the partial name is from the middle or end of the filename. That might be the reason it is not being found.

You mentioned earlier that you received the file from Amazon. If that's the case, once you have unhidden your Library file look for a folder named "Mail Downloads". The file may be in there.

If you are using something other than Mac Mail for e-mail the folder might have a different name.

Open the file in Excel and right click the file icon or name in the titlebar. When you do that, you'll be presented with a menu that will show you where to look.

I thank everyone for their time and their consideration. Right-clicking the file name showed it was in the trash folder along with a few hundred other items. I cannot account for its presence there as I never saw it anywhere but in the Excel file menu.