Re: [libreoffice-users] Calc Major Bug

On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 12:35 PM, Andrew Foss <shrisource@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> I need to open a tab delimited text file in Calc. I have done this many  times
> in Excel where you have to Open the File from inside Excel.  However, trying to
> open it with Calc launches Writer (ugh!!!). It seems  the programmers have gone
> to great lengths to stop one doing what you  wants and needs to do. Obviously,
> if one is inside Calc, any file one  tries to open should open inside Calc.
> That's a no brainer.

Well, it sounds logical but Open/Libre Office seems to use a single
file open dialog across all applications (or at least Writer, Calc and
Impress).

> How can I work around this problem? I tried tyo merge in the file but  that also
> failed. I tried changing the file extension but LO ignored  that. I tried
> caopy/paste into Calc but Calc failed to put each tab  delimited field into a
> separate cell so that failed. Hopeless!

You need to be careful specifying the input type. Start Calc, go to
File->Open, then select the file and under the file type selector be
careful to scroll down to spreadsheet types. You will recognize the
section by ODF Spreadsheet,  MS Excel and similar file types. Among
them is "Text csv". Select that one, and you will be presented with a
csv/tab delimited loading wizard that should correctly split your file
into columns. I do this all the time and I agree that Excel is easier
to use in this regard.

HTH,

Peter

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