How to open XML data file?

[JoeU2004]

I am trying to open an XML data file (I think). I am having trouble
following the Help instructions. The instructions say: click on File >
Open, then select and open the file. An Open XML dialog box should appear.

It does not. Instead, the open proceeds directly, but the resulting
worksheet does not have useful data.

What am I doing wrong?

Using Notepad to view the file contents, they seem okay. I don't know XML.
But the file does contain the data I am looking for, albeit in a structured
form,

I suspect the problem might be the hacks I have done to get this far.
Perhaps I made some mistakes.

The file was downloaded from a web site. The file extension was ".pwx".
Since the system does not recognize that file type, I renamed it to ".xml".
Excel recognizes that. But I wonder: are there different flavors of XML
files; is there a different file extension that I should use?

As I said, I don't know XML, so I don't understand much of the terminology
in the XML Help pages.

If I have to teach Excel an XML schema first, then f'getaboutit!

I don't know what an XML Expansion Pack is and whether or not I need one. I
do not see XML on the Data menu anyway. Is that a symptom of the root cause
of my problem?

I'm about to resort to writing a VBA procedure to read and parse the file as
text. I hope someone can save me the trouble.

 

[JoeU2004]

PS....

I forgot to mention that I am using Excel 2003 and Win XP Pro SP3.


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[JoeU2004]

Never mind!

I still do not understand why I do not get an Open XML dialog box.

But the file contents are probably entered into the worksheet correctly, at
least in accordance with the XML schema.

I was confused by the 187 columns of 723 rows of data. The 723 rows make
sense; not the 187 columns, IMHO. It also did not help that there very few
labels (descriptive text).

But in the final analysis, I realize now that all the data is there. It is
simply not organized in an intuitive manner, IMHO. Chalk it up to "poor"
application design.

I guess I'll write that parser after all. It might be the quickest way for
me to get results that I can work with. If I knew XML or if I understand
the structure of the worksheet, there might be a better way to filter and
reorganize the data. But at this point, I don't know where to start.

Much ado about nothing ;-).


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