Problem opening file with 08 that works in 04 (text wizard issue?)

S

Steve Maser

[[ This message was both posted and mailed: see
the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]


I'm hopeful somebody can tell me if I'm missing something or if this is
a bug in Excel 08 that needs to be reported.


A database we use exports information into a text file.

One of the sets of information it exports is a series of dates that
need to go into *one cell* in Excel.


The exported text file -- tab delimited, has this as the series of
dates (this is an extract from a much larger text file):

"02/08/2000
02/07/2001
02/07/2001
10/01/2001
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
06/20/2007
06/19/2007"


If I use Excel 04 -- and "open with" the file -- (or hold down the
shift key to File --> Open and bypass the text import wizard), the
single cell contains the data like:


02/08/2000
02/07/2001
02/07/2001
10/01/2001
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
06/20/2007
06/19/2007


Which is what my user expects.


However, in *Excel 08*, doing the same action (either "open with" Excel
08 or "File --> Open" and hold down the shift key to bypass the wizard)
-- each date is in it's own cell.


Which is not what the user expects (and really, really messes up the
spreadsheet).


This *seems* like a bug in Excel 08 because if I open the file
(correctly) in Excel 04 and save it as an Excel file, then Excel 08
opens the file correctly. But doing a "Save As" in Excel 08 *as text*
exports the file so it looks like the original (with the dates
surrounded by quotation marks), but doing another "open with" puts
everything back in an individual cell again.

Which is wrong.



Office 08 has been patched to 12.1.5. (And Office 04 is patched,
too...)


Am I just missing anything about Excel 08 that might make this work
properly? What I *can't* get to work (even in 04) is using the
"import Wizard" to get things in one cell. Maybe there's a trick there
that I'm not seeing, but using the import wizard is not giving what I
need.

- Steve
 
S

Steve Maser

I should add to this that Excel 07 appears to open the file fine as
well (if I hold down the "shift" key when doing a File-Open so the
wizard does *not* run...)

- Steve
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

[[ This message was both posted and mailed: see
the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]


I'm hopeful somebody can tell me if I'm missing something or if this is
a bug in Excel 08 that needs to be reported.


A database we use exports information into a text file.

One of the sets of information it exports is a series of dates that
need to go into *one cell* in Excel.


The exported text file -- tab delimited, has this as the series of
dates (this is an extract from a much larger text file):

"02/08/2000
02/07/2001
02/07/2001
10/01/2001
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
06/20/2007
06/19/2007"


If I use Excel 04 -- and "open with" the file -- (or hold down the
shift key to File --> Open and bypass the text import wizard), the
single cell contains the data like:


02/08/2000
02/07/2001
02/07/2001
10/01/2001
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
08/07/2002
06/20/2007
06/19/2007


Which is what my user expects.


However, in *Excel 08*, doing the same action (either "open with" Excel
08 or "File --> Open" and hold down the shift key to bypass the wizard)
-- each date is in it's own cell.


Which is not what the user expects (and really, really messes up the
spreadsheet).


This *seems* like a bug in Excel 08 because if I open the file
(correctly) in Excel 04 and save it as an Excel file, then Excel 08
opens the file correctly. But doing a "Save As" in Excel 08 *as text*
exports the file so it looks like the original (with the dates
surrounded by quotation marks), but doing another "open with" puts
everything back in an individual cell again.

Which is wrong.



Office 08 has been patched to 12.1.5. (And Office 04 is patched,
too...)


Am I just missing anything about Excel 08 that might make this work
properly? What I *can't* get to work (even in 04) is using the
"import Wizard" to get things in one cell. Maybe there's a trick there
that I'm not seeing, but using the import wizard is not giving what I
need.

- Steve
If you are saying that the file contains Double Quote First Date
Return Second Date Return etc. Then I propose that Excel 2008 is the only
version doing this properly.

Can you send me a small sample of the file? I'd like to take a look.
 
S

Steve Maser

Bob Greenblatt said:
If you are saying that the file contains Double Quote First Date
Return Second Date Return etc. Then I propose that Excel 2008 is the only
version doing this properly.

Can you send me a small sample of the file? I'd like to take a look.


Hi Bob...

Example File has been sent to you in e-mail. Please post here as to
what you see.

- Steve
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

Hi Bob...

Example File has been sent to you in e-mail. Please post here as to
what you see.

- Steve
I see the issue and have mentioned to Microsoft. I'll let you know the
results.
 

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