Importing Text Files

Here are some tips on how to import the output created by Unix commands:

• Gnumeric:
  The character " is used by the spreadsheet to denote strings, and may therefore pose a problem during import. Two possible solutions are: Replacing it temporarily by some other character that does not appear in the file to be imported, or quoting it with itself (i.e. entering "" instead of " in the text file).
• OpenOffice Calc:
  • Change the file extension to .csv
  • Choose Open... in the File menu
  • In the dialog that opens, check the boxes "Separated by: Space" and "Merge delimiters"
• Excel:
  • Choose Open... in the File menu
  • In the 2nd dialog box, choose "Delimited"
  • In the 3rd one, select "Delimiters: Space" and "Treat consecutive delimiters as one"
• Numbers:
  Pre-process the input file in another application to change column separators to tabulators or commas (in this case, file extension must be .csv).