Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 19749
Opening tab-delimitted files in Spreadsheet...
Last modified: 2013-08-07 15:15:02 UTC
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
Hi Bettina, 1 4 u Frank
Hello Daniel, yes, this problem is going to be solved for OO.o 2.0. Please have a look at issue 1834. Soon there will be available a specification for a more intutive handling at opening such file types in Spreadsheet. This issue is set duplicate to 1834. *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 1834 ***
Closed.