Importing Fixed Width data

[Duble]

Hi,

I've been extracting information from my company mainframe, and placing
fields into a "fixed length record" file, which I then FTP, and import into
Excel 2000.

Each record contains around 200 fields, and the import process is VERY
painful, for two reasons.

- many of the fields are single byte, and clicking to set the start/end
point of each is a nightmare.
- I generally need to put many of my fields into 'Text' format, as much of
the data has leading zeros, which need to be retained.

Is there a way that I can set up an import 'template', so that I can just
feed newer versions of the data in, without going through this slow and
painful process every time?

And is there a quicker way to set each imported field to 'Text' format,
without clicking on each one, and pressing the 'T' key? If I wait until the
data has imported to the spreadsheet, I find that much of my data has
already been 'trashed', and stripped of its leading zeros.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I think I'd record a macro in a new workbook when I did it manually once.

Then keep that macro workbook available for the next time.

And you can click on the first field, and shift-click on another field and make
all those inbetween fields Text.

But with 200 fields, I think that the macro you record won't work when you play
it back.

MS has a workaround at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q134826
XL: "Out of Memory" Message Using the OpenText Method

 

[BrianB]

Next time you do the job set the macro recorder first. This will save
all the information you need.

Regards
BrianB
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