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by phonon 3799 days ago
>In addition, it is completely useless for handling any type of delimited file. By default it supports csv. If you want to view a pipe-delimited file, you have to dig into the language settings of Windows, change the default delimiter, and open the file. Then, you cannot edit comma-separated files without changing it back first. So, there's no way to convert one to the other. Same problem with tab delimiters.

Totally wrong, Excel has the ability to import using Data -> From Text that opens a wizard that will step you through opening any type of delimited file, formatting columns, header rows, etc.
1 comments
nanny 3799 days ago
That doesn't help you edit the file, though. It only helps you convert it to an Excel file. You still can't save as anything other than comma-separated without changing the language settings.
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phonon 3799 days ago
First, you're wrong again, you can also save as tab delimited text or just text. Also, Access has some more Excel export options. http://superuser.com/a/107124

Secondly, Excel is not designed for round trip editing in plain text formats. You shouldn't use Word as a text editor either :-)

There are specialized editors if you want to directly edit a csv file etc. I use them sometimes. That's not what Excel is for.

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