At 05:45 21/08/2007 +0200, Andreas Noname wrote:
is there a way to cut up text columns?
Suppose you get a file where in column A is a list of text-values like:
"01 first"
"02 second"
"03 third"
Now I'd rather have the number part remain in column A and the text
part in a new column B.
"01" "first"
"02" "second"
"03" "third"
I couldn't find such a feature in OOo, yet.
EXCEL does this in its Data menu with the command "text in columns".
It's similar to the text-file-import where one can define if the
data has fixed width columns or is separated by some character like
space or tab.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Paste Special! It is a
little messy, but there is a workaround for this:
o Select the column of text and copy it.
o Paste it into a text editor, the plainer the better. Since you
appear to be using Windows, Notepad is ideal.
o Select all the text in the text editor and copy again.
o Paste this back into your spreadsheet (pasting over the original
in your case), but using Edit | Paste Special... (or right-click |
Paste Special...) and then choosing "Unformatted text".
o This will bring up the Text Import window that you
describe. Under "Separated by", tick the Space box and then OK.
If you paste into cells having the default format, your numbers will
be interpreted as numbers and lose their leading zeros. If you want
to retain the numbers as text, you will need either to format the
receiving cells appropriately before you do the Paste Special or else
to set the "Column type" of the relevant column to Text in the Text
Import window.
You could use Writer instead of Notepad, but in that case you may
have to use Paste Special... and choose "Unformatted text" when doing
the first paste too, to avoid carrying over the cell formatting.
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker
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