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Open .tsv file as tab delimited file in Excel

Anonymous
2019-08-14T19:00:01+00:00

I have documents saved as tsv (tab-separated values) files (similar to a csv). I want Excel to recognize the file extension and split the text to columns on a tab delimiter. Excel already does this with .txt tab-delimited files but will not do it with .tsv files. Is there a way to enable Excel to do this with .tsv files as well? 

Note: I know how to do this manually (text to columns) but would like to have it happen automatically. 

I am using Excel for Mac version 16.16.12

Edit: I do not need to know how to convert the text to columns but how to have Excel automatically open .tsv files. I want to be able to open the file from the finder into a table in excel (in the same way you can open a csv file and it automatically converts it to a table). Apple's Numbers does this but I can't get Excel to do the same.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-11-01T22:27:05+00:00

    I am aware of all these methods, they do not meet the requirements as I would like to have them open directly from the file into a table. When opening a csv excel automatically recognizes the file type and splits it into the corresponding table - no need to specify that you are importing a file or that you need to split the text into columns. I was seeking a way to have excel recognize .tsv's in the same manner. All of these methods require a manual splitting of the columns. The closest method is Jim Gordon's in which I could create a script to rename all .tsv's as csv or txt. But that still is an extra step that feels unnecessary. It appears that Excel does not have the capability to define/recognize other files with specific extensions outside of .csv/.txt.

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  2. DaveM121 877.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2019-08-14T19:06:20+00:00

    Hi e_joh_

    On a PC, this is the way to do this, hopefully, this will also work n a mac

    On the Data Tab, choose Get Data - From File

    Set Type of file to all files and select that tsv file

    Excel will then bring up a dialog with that data and should automatically pick the Tab character as the delimiter, if not, set that to Tab . . .

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-08-15T10:06:05+00:00

    Hi e_joh_,

    Excel for Mac (version 16.27) can work with .tvs file. First of all, please update to latest version, click Help>Check for updates, you can check Version of Office in this article:****Update history for Office for Mac

    Francis give the right methods in the link of her reply. I’d like to add some screenshots as reference.

    1.       Open a blank workbook.

    2.       Select Data>Get External Data>Import Text File

    3.       Choose the .tsv file you want.

    4.       Follow the wizard to import the data from a .tsv file.

    I hope these can help you.

    Regards,

         Robinson

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-08-16T10:16:27+00:00

    Hi e_joh_,

    Have  you tried methods above? Do they meet your requirement?

    Regards

    Robinson

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-08-14T19:12:01+00:00

    Hi , e_joh_

    my name is Francis and I'll do my best to help you today.

    Then I will leave a thread where an expert talks about a topic similar to yours. I hope you solve your problem

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/fo...

    Regards,

    Francis.

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