How can I export Lightroom metadata to CSV without commas in captions breaking columns?

Question

I’m exporting metadata from Lightroom with LR/Transporter. The export works except when the Caption field contains commas: anything after a comma shifts into the next CSV column.

For Keywords, LR/Transporter lets me replace commas with another character using syntax like `{keywordTags[;]}`, but the same approach does not work for captions.

Is there a way to preserve commas in captions when exporting, or another reliable workflow for exporting Lightroom metadata while keeping fields intact?

user4273 · Answer

Instead of creating a Comma Separated file LR/Transporter will output a Tab Delimited file which will preserve your commas and make importing the data much cleaner.

If you really need a CSV file you can easily make or use a tool to do the conversion from Tabs to Commas that can preserve the commas.

Here is a good post about the trouble with the CSV format and workarounds for different use-cases. https://stackoverflow.com/q/4025831/210570

P.S. Using the Lightroom 5 Beta, LR/Transporter is not adding carrige returns at the end of each photos metadata. To get around this I am using a text editor to replace the " " with a carriage return so that Excel may properly import the file.

The Head: Caption{tab}Keywords

The text for each photo: {caption}{tab}{keywordTagsForExport}

How can I export Lightroom metadata to CSV without commas in captions breaking columns?

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