Converting a Microsoft Works Spreadsheet to a Text File

 

 

For this example, we will use a Microsoft Works spreadsheet to demonstrate how to convert it into a usable text file.  From there we will use the Copy Input feature in XGW32 to add the text file to our layout.

 

  1. Open the spreadsheet.  You will notice that there are 15 rows of names and in each row there are four columns of information.

 

 

  1. Select File | Save as…

 

 

  1. Give the file a name and in the Save as type field, choose “Text & Tabs (*.txt)”

  2. Click the Save button when finished.

 

 

  1. A dialog will appear informing that you will loose special formatting such as bold and italics which is fine for what we are doing.  Click on OK.

 

 

  1. Close out Microsoft Works and open Microsoft Word.

  2. Our document will look something like this:

 

 

When we saved the file in Microsoft Works, it placed a tab between entries in each row.  Now that we have the file in this format, we can replace each tab with a carriage return.

 

  1. In Microsoft Word, select Edit | Replace…

 

 

  1. In the Find and Replace dialog, click on the More button to display the rest of the window.

 

            

 

  1. Place the cursor in the Find what field and click on the Special button.

  2. From the menu, choose “Tab Character”.

 

 

  1. Place the cursor in the Replace with field and click on the Special button.

  2. Choose “Manual Line Break”.

 

 

  1. Click on the Replace All button.

  2. Microsoft Word will replace all of the tabs with carriage returns and will display a dialog box showing how many were replaced.  Click on OK to close the box.

 

 

  1. Click on the Close button to exit the Find and Replace dialog.

  2. Now our document will look like this.

 

 

  1. Select File | Save as…

  2. For the Save as type, select “Plain Text (*.txt)”

  3. Name the file and click the Save button.

 

 

  1. In the File Conversion dialog, Set the Text encoding to Windows (Default), the End lines with to “CR/LF” and click the OK button.

 

 

  1. Now open Xenetech and select File | New…

  2. We will set our single plate size to 1” high and 3” wide.

  3. We will set our multiple plate size to 12” high and 24” wide.

  4. Click the OK button when finished.

 

 

Our screen will look something like this:

 

 

  1. Place four “X’s” on the screen and even space them.  Each of the X’s will represent one line of text.  (Remember from our Microsoft Works spreadsheet that we had four columns of information).

 

 

  1. Select Misc | Copy input…

  2. Use the Look in field to locate the text file we saved from Microsoft Word.

  3. Select the text file and click the Open button.

 

 

  1. The text file will be imported into our layout and will look something like this:

 

                    

             Normal View                                         Full Screen View