Knowledgebase

Microsoft Excel instructions

Related: Download your Form Data information.

Save a copy of the [output data file] someplace you will remember and then open Excel without clicking on any file.

1. Select File > Open from the Excel menu and browse to find and select the file.
2. Select Text Files from the Files of type listbox and then select the output data file. The Text Import Wizard dialog box will now appear.
3. Set the Original data type parameter to Delimited.
4. Click Next to proceed.
5. Set the Delimiters parameter to Other and then type in a pipe character*.
   

     Hold down the Shift key and press the Pipe/Backslash key (above right of Enter key) to type the pipe character.

   
   
    
6. Make sure Other is the only value checked.
7. Click Next.
8. Optionally redefine field types for fields containing numeric codes from General to Text so leading zeros (if present) don't get dropped.
9. Click Next or Finish.

Open Office instructions

First, if your ASCII file is not already named with a .txt extension, rename it that way.

1. Select File > Open from the main menu and browse to find and select the file.
2. Select File type: Text CSV (.csv; .txt)
      Note: This choice is near the bottom in the spreadsheet file types section of the list.
   
    
3. Click Open.
4. In the dialog that appears next, select the Separator options.
   
   These are the characters or methods used in the file to separate the fields of data. The same methods must be specified in this box as those used in the file to import the data into a spreadsheet. After selecting the separator type, a preview of the data will be displayed in the Fields section. If the data visually lines up in columns, then the correct separator has been selected. If not, a different separator type may be used in the file. The goal is to match the correct character used as a separator in the file, so that the data will line up nicely in the visible cells.
   
   
   
    
5. Set the Delimiters parameter to Other and then type in a pipe character*.
   

     Hold down the Shift key and press the Pipe/Backslash key (above right of Enter key) to type the pipe character.

   
   
    
6. When the data lines up, click OK.

Hints:

• The characters used as a separators and delimiters will be visible, if you open the .txt file in Writer and enable the hidden characters (View > Nonprinting Characters).
• If your file still only opens in Writer, check if it doesn't contain illegal characters, e.g. null characters. They will show as (rows of) #'s in Writer. Delete these illegal characters (in Writer), save (a copy of?) the file and reopen this in Calc, as "Text CSV".
• Use Windows Explorer to find subject file i.e. XYZ.TAB, then click Right on this file and use Open with ... and select OO Calc as the program to open it.