Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 9041
Cannot read/import/paste tab-delimited text
Last modified: 2005-04-25 10:51:43 UTC
The spreadsheet reads a tab-delimited text file in as a single column. The same error occurs when cutting and pasting as well. This is on openoffice 1.0.1 as distributed with RedHat 8.0 for x86
Can you provide a download URL can you attach this file?
Here's what appears to be a related issue: (Using OO 1.0.2 on Win ME) Tab characters are not pasted as cell boundaries when copy/pasting from OOWriter. They are converted into some square symbol, line contents are inserted into a single cell. Workaround: a) paste to Wordpad first (and lose all formatting properties), then copy/paste to Calc and find out that tab separated text is distributed into cells. b) use paste/special to obtain the same results (i.e. also losing formats)
if you try to cut and paste tab-delimited text, thus happens. But if you try to import or open the file directly, there is a dialog which will use tabs as cell boundaries. So I am marking this invalid
This task is 'resolved invalid' and will be closed now. If you have more details to reproduce the task, please reopen it.
Closed bacause invalid
Created attachment 22193 [details] Spreadsheet I want to paste data into
Created attachment 22194 [details] Data I want to insert into my spreadsheet
I want to add data to my spreadsheet. The data to be added is tab-separated. Pasting the data doesn't work because each line of data ends up in a single cell; I want it spread across several cells in each row. Inserting external data doesn't allow me to insert this data either. How can I insert the data in the text file starting at cell B7 in the spreadsheet?
I see that I forgot to mention my platform and version of OOo: Windows XP OOo 1.1.4
I have tested my example files on Fedora Core 3 and found that Calc (openoffice.org-1.1.2-6.5.0.fc3) pastes as I desire if I use gedit to open and copy from the text file. That is, this issue is resolved on Fedora Core 3, but not resolved on Windows XP.
I have confirmed the failure of the proposed workaround of pasting to Wordpad and then copying from there to the spreadsheet. Pasting of tab-separated data doesn't distribute correctly in Windows XP using OOcalc version 1.9.79.
The workaround works fine, but the default format for pasting from clipboard is the RTF format. The RTF format supports tables therefor tabs are not used as cellseperators during import to the spreadsheet. You have to use INSERT-PASTE SPECIAL and choose the "unformated text" format. Another possibility to get your data into a spreadsheet is the option INSERT-SHEET FROM FILE. (NOTE: this option was broken somewhere between OO1.9m78 and OOo1.9m94, so OOo1.9m95 works fine)
Thanks for clarifying this; you are correct and I'm satisfied. Regular pasting from Notepad works correctly. But paste special, Unformatted text, is required for pasting from Wordpad and Outlook email (even though the email is "plain text"). It is good to see Insert -> Sheet From File working, but it is inconvenient for me since I want to add data to an existing sheet. Also, "Insert -> Sheet From File" for an RTF file again ignores the tabs that were originally there without giving an option to insert unformatted text. (But I'm not complaining.)