Display Control Characters in Excel 2007

[Paul Vodola]

Hi,

This is a little esoteric but I would like to import and edit text files
that contain control characters such as <TAB> and <LF> in Excel 2007. I have
always been able to do this in Excel 97 and, at work I can do it in Excel
2007 Enterprise running on XP Pro.

I recently installed Office Enterprise 2007 at home on XP Home and Windows 7
Home Premium from downloads under the Home Use Program. I can't view or edit
control characters in Excel. They are there and I can process them using
string functions but I can't see them and, if I try to edit cells that
contain them either in the cell or edit line, the editor gets confused. You
can't predict what characters it will change and you don't know the outcome.

I noticed that MS tells that we do this in Excel 2003 through the Tools |
Options | International tab. That facility seems to be missing in the 2007
edition. I went back to Office 2007 setup and noted a general option to
include International language support but I don't seem to be able to
implement it. So, I now have two questions:

Does anyone know how to view control characters in Excel 2007, and
Is there a way to install features that are marked "not available" in the
Home Use download package? Would these features be available in the backup
DVD or by separate download and would I be able to see control characters?

Thanks,

Paul Vodola

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Hi Paul,

What an interesting question. Since no one has had an answer here yet (this
group is for Office installation / setup issues), try posting to an Excel
group where more of those gurus hang out (and yearn for esoteric questions).

Good luck--

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Oh, and I just re-read and understand why you posted in this group. But do
check out the Excel path, as well.

 

[Paul Vodola]

Susan,

Thanks for your interest. About half of my observations in the post were
inaccurrate but I still can't set Excel up the way I want. I misunderstood
the indicators for installed components. I think I can install anything I
want from the HUP download.

I did post on excel.misc and I got an answer -- try Terminal font -- which
works. But it's different and a little less convenient than my setup at
work. I tried to attach screenshots of the following 4 steps but the system
won't accept them. The experiment starts with a 3x3 sheet which is save as a
tab-delimited text file. Then openit in the text import wizard. The tabs
appear as boxes in the preview pane.Turn off the tab delimiter option. and
complete the coversion. The tabs have a symbol representation in both the
cells and formula bar with Calibri font, which sees a different font than
the preview pane of the wizard. The Office Button | Excel Option shows that
Excel is using the Body Font. This is the setup I want.

At home, I have these same default settings. In the text import preview
pane, all tabs are invisible. Letters are adjacent. The cells and formula
bar also look adjacent but the tabs are present. The insertion point stops
twice in locations with the tab. If I edit such cells, the editor can get
confused about what letters are being altered and where they are. I fact, I
can't always place the insertion bar where I want to.

It's a minor inconvenience to change to Terminal Font and more of a puzzle
now.

Paul