Help converting a word doc to an Excel file.

[Francesca]

I have converted the text to a table and saved as a RIch text file and then opened in Excel and its filled with extra symbols in every field... I have a large word document that I must get into an Excel file and am about to rip my hair out... Forgive my ignorance and help me someone...please...

[democracyindanger]

1. Try saving as plain text

or not converting the Word text into a table before importing into Excel. Simply put, leave the data as raw as possible, and futz with it in Excel.

It's difficult to give more assistance without a little more detail. What kind of data--numerical, etc.--are you trying to import from Word?

[Francesca]

2. Its a lot listing of an auction catalogue

basically has a numbered list like this

1 Chippendale blah blah blah
2 Oil on canvas blah blah blah
3 Folk art blah blah blah

after the numbers there is a tab to separate the numbers from the text and other than the tab there is no other formatting...
thank you in advance

[democracyindanger]

3. have you tried

selecting the entire Word document->copy->go to Excel, select the columns that you want to paste into->paste

seems like the easiest way to do it, especially if you want to keep the table you drew in word.

[welshTerrier2]

4. got it to work easily without the table ...

i tried inputting your data into Word using only tabs between the columns and then saving the file out as a .txt file (not an rtf) ...

then i opened Excel, an clicked file/open ... i chose the .txt file i created and it asked me to choose the delimeter i used ... i told it to use a "tab" delimeter and it then was able to build the excel spreadsheet with the 3 columns ...

i think the "word table" is embedding all sorts of hidden characters ... you might be better off sticking to a tab delimeter and getting rid of the Word table ...

[Francesca]

5. thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!

this is perfect!!!
My regards.

[welshTerrier2]

6. glad it worked out ...

who's the auction for? i've written some very customized auction software for mrs. wt2's wine auction that she runs for her non-profit every year ...

i've been thinking of developing a more commercial version as a product i could sell ... does your event use software to generate invoices ??

[Francesca]

7. Hi, the auction house is The Cobbs Auctioneers

you can see our website at www.thecobbs.com ... I married one of the Cobbs. I do all the prepress work (all the ads and catalogs) and created the website.. I am self taught however and really need help on occasion.. right now we are using an auction management program running on a UNIX based system to clerk the sales and generate invoices..