Text import wizard defaults?

Is it possible to change the text import wizard defaults in excel 2003?

The goal is to change it so that it *always* picks delimited and to, by
default, have space be a "selected" delimiter.

None of the files I import are fixed width, although some of the "look"
that way to the import wizard, and all of them use spaces as delimiters.

Thanks!
Bruce

--
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
Bruce Bowler | As the economy gets better, everything else gets
1.207.633.9600 | worse. - Buchwald's Law
[email protected] |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

Saved from a previous post:

It's been my experience that excel likes to remember what you used the previous
time (within the same excel session).

So once you do data|text to columns, excel will remember this when you paste
that comma delimited stuff the second time.

If you close the workbook, then excel forgets and goes back to its default.

I don't think you can change the default, but you can take advantage of excel's
"helpfulness".

You could make a dummy workbook and put it in your xlStart folder. Have a macro
in that workbook that does a texttocolumns the way you want. Then closes and
gets out of the way.

Option Explicit
Private Sub Auto_Open()

With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Range("a1")
.Value = "asdf"
.TextToColumns Destination:=.Columns(1), DataType:=xlDelimited, _
TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=True, _
Tab:=False, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=False, Space:=True, _
Other:=False
End With

ThisWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False

End Sub

Each time excel opens, it would open this workbook. The workbook would do its
stuff and close.

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

Bruce Bowler wrote:
>
> Is it possible to change the text import wizard defaults in excel 2003?
>
> The goal is to change it so that it *always* picks delimited and to, by
> default, have space be a "selected" delimiter.
>
> None of the files I import are fixed width, although some of the "look"
> that way to the import wizard, and all of them use spaces as delimiters.
>
> Thanks!
> Bruce
>
> --
> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
> Bruce Bowler | As the economy gets better, everything else gets
> 1.207.633.9600 | worse. - Buchwald's Law
> [email protected] |
> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

--

Dave Peterson

Might work for pasted stuff, using data>>text to columns but that's not
what I'm doing (and, in fact, cant easily do).

And excel doesn't remember the settings for the text import wizard between
imports in the same excel session.

Oh well, I guess it's off to write a macro to handle what should be a
natively supported operation (but instead Billy boy decided to pay his
developers to put a flight simulator in excel... Yep, makes sense to me :-)

Bruce

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:14:30 -0600, Dave Peterson put fingers to
keyboard and said:

> Saved from a previous post:
>
> It's been my experience that excel likes to remember what you used the previous
> time (within the same excel session).
>
> So once you do data|text to columns, excel will remember this when you paste
> that comma delimited stuff the second time.
>
> If you close the workbook, then excel forgets and goes back to its default.
>
> I don't think you can change the default, but you can take advantage of excel's
> "helpfulness".
>
> You could make a dummy workbook and put it in your xlStart folder. Have a macro
> in that workbook that does a texttocolumns the way you want. Then closes and
> gets out of the way.
>
> Option Explicit
> Private Sub Auto_Open()
>
> With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Range("a1")
> .Value = "asdf"
> .TextToColumns Destination:=.Columns(1), DataType:=xlDelimited, _
> TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=True, _
> Tab:=False, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=False, Space:=True, _
> Other:=False
> End With
>
> ThisWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False
>
> End Sub
>
> Each time excel opens, it would open this workbook. The workbook would do its
> stuff and close.
>
> If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
> http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm
>
> Bruce Bowler wrote:
>>
>> Is it possible to change the text import wizard defaults in excel 2003?
>>
>> The goal is to change it so that it *always* picks delimited and to, by
>> default, have space be a "selected" delimiter.
>>
>> None of the files I import are fixed width, although some of the "look"
>> that way to the import wizard, and all of them use spaces as delimiters.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Bruce
>>
>> --
>> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
>> Bruce Bowler | As the economy gets better, everything else gets
>> 1.207.633.9600 | worse. - Buchwald's Law
>> [email protected] |
>> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

--
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
Bruce Bowler | History repeats itself. That's one of the things
1.207.633.9600 | wrong with history. - Clarence Darrow
[email protected] |
+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

This technique has always worked for me when I do file|open or data|text to
columns.

And excel has always remembered the settings until I either closed excel or ran
a superseding different text to columns.

I don't have a guess why it doesn't work for you.

Bruce Bowler wrote:
>
> Might work for pasted stuff, using data>>text to columns but that's not
> what I'm doing (and, in fact, cant easily do).
>
> And excel doesn't remember the settings for the text import wizard between
> imports in the same excel session.
>
> Oh well, I guess it's off to write a macro to handle what should be a
> natively supported operation (but instead Billy boy decided to pay his
> developers to put a flight simulator in excel... Yep, makes sense to me :-)
>
> Bruce
>
> On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:14:30 -0600, Dave Peterson put fingers to
> keyboard and said:
>
> > Saved from a previous post:
> >
> > It's been my experience that excel likes to remember what you used the previous
> > time (within the same excel session).
> >
> > So once you do data|text to columns, excel will remember this when you paste
> > that comma delimited stuff the second time.
> >
> > If you close the workbook, then excel forgets and goes back to its default.
> >
> > I don't think you can change the default, but you can take advantage of excel's
> > "helpfulness".
> >
> > You could make a dummy workbook and put it in your xlStart folder. Have a macro
> > in that workbook that does a texttocolumns the way you want. Then closes and
> > gets out of the way.
> >
> > Option Explicit
> > Private Sub Auto_Open()
> >
> > With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Range("a1")
> > .Value = "asdf"
> > .TextToColumns Destination:=.Columns(1), DataType:=xlDelimited, _
> > TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=True, _
> > Tab:=False, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=False, Space:=True, _
> > Other:=False
> > End With
> >
> > ThisWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False
> >
> > End Sub
> >
> > Each time excel opens, it would open this workbook. The workbook would do its
> > stuff and close.
> >
> > If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
> > http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm
> >
> > Bruce Bowler wrote:
> >>
> >> Is it possible to change the text import wizard defaults in excel 2003?
> >>
> >> The goal is to change it so that it *always* picks delimited and to, by
> >> default, have space be a "selected" delimiter.
> >>
> >> None of the files I import are fixed width, although some of the "look"
> >> that way to the import wizard, and all of them use spaces as delimiters.
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >> Bruce
> >>
> >> --
> >> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
> >> Bruce Bowler | As the economy gets better, everything else gets
> >> 1.207.633.9600 | worse. - Buchwald's Law
> >> [email protected] |
> >> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
>
> --
> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
> Bruce Bowler | History repeats itself. That's one of the things
> 1.207.633.9600 | wrong with history. - Clarence Darrow
> [email protected] |
> +-------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

--

Dave Peterson