Issue 19749

Dear OpenOffice,

NOTE: Please bare with me...this is not a rant, but an honest suggestion for 
making OO even better :)

I am a new user to OO.  I would like to be able to open a tab-delimitted text 
file in Spreadsheet.  However, whenever I try to do this, Writer starts up and 
displays the file.  This is extremely frustrating.  If I wanted to open the 
file in Writer, I would open the file in Writer.  But, if I have explicitely 
started an instance of Spreadsheet, and try to open a file, it's because I want 
the file opened in Spreadsheet, not anything else.  

Now, there are two workarounds to this problem:

1. rename the file to have the extension .csv

2. “File” => “Open” dialog, you can also set the 'Files of type' field to 'Text 
CSV'. 

Although I strongly believe that these are not appropriate solutions to the 
problem, I understand that currently, this is how it must be done.  
Unfortunately, the second solution (which is the only real option for me since 
I do not intend to rename any files on the server just to be able to open 
them), although workable, is extremely tedious to follow because the "Text CSV" 
option is burried in the list.  To add to the problem, there are different 
types of Text options scattered throughout the drop-down list, instead of being 
grouped together.  This to me, AS AND END USER, has no logic whatsoever.

So, my suggestion for enhancing OO is as follows:
1. Ideally, allow me to simply open text documents in Spreadsheet, WITHOUT 
having to rename the file or specifiy it as CSV in the drop down list (NOTE: MS 
Excel would recognize it as a text file and then prompt you to select the 
delimitter type--i.e., it doesn't start up a copy of MS Word, just because the 
file is a text file).
2. If #1 is not possible (I would pray that it is), then please group 
the "Text" drop-down list items together so that it is easy to find the one you 
are looking for.  I.e., group the following together: Text, Text Encoded, Text 
CSV, etc.  Currently these are scattered throughout the list, so if I see only 
the first two at the top of the list, it leads me to believe that those are the 
only two available, when in fact there are more deep down in the list.

This is a usability issue.  I think it would go a long way to helping new users 
make the transition to OO.  I myself hit a brick wall with this issue day one, 
file one, and almost gave up on OO altogether, on this issue alone.  But I 
decided to try to do something to help instead.

BTW, all is not gloomy.  OO provides the feature I needed, and which does not 
exist in Excel XP, and that is simply the ability to open a text file saved as 
UTF-8.  Great job.  Thanks for all the hard work!  

Sincerely, 

--Daniel