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I am currently adding all my products into a csv file ready to import into my store. To get the template i exported my existing products and am using that csv as the template which contains every single column.
I have a lot of empty columns such as...
custom_design_from
manufacturer
minimal_price
msrp
special_price
etc..
Do i need to include these empty columns? If i remove them will that mess up my import?
You do not need these columns, the only required columns you need are the attributes that are required in the backend.
So in a base install of Magento, you need "description", "name", "price", "sku", "status", "tax_class_id", "visibility", and "weight". Below is a picture of the required options in a clean install of Magento EE 1.14 (so there are a few additional required fields as you can see).
Many developers, will delete these columns from the CSV if we are not using them.
I would suggest using OpenOffice to create your CSV and make sure you select the option to "quote all text fields". Microsoft Excel can work, however I have noticed a lot of formatting issues that can screw up data (especially if you use Office for Mac).
