Importing Fixed Width Text Data Into Excel

**jgsuf** · 08-21-2014, 10:51 AM

Does anyone know of a wizard, 3rd party software, or other shortcut--as opposed to having to insert the column dividers manually--for importing a fixed-width text file into excel? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The files I'm having to import consist of dozens and dozens of columns. Thanks!

**JBeaucaire** · 08-21-2014, 01:06 PM

If the files are all the same format, you can make your own reusable macro by turning on the macro recorder, then manually importing one of the files. That macro would have all the base columns you've noted, a little tweaking on that macro could make it import all the files in a single folder of the same format.

**MrShorty** · 08-21-2014, 01:41 PM

I tend to use the "Import External Data from Text" command on the Data Group. Select "Import from text", navigate to the text file, and open -- which brings up the text import wizard. From there you can select either a delimiter or a fixed width, specify where the column breaks are (if Excel's default detection doesn't correctly locate the breaks), format each column to import numbers or text, and so on. At the end, you can set the properties of the data import (prompt for file on refresh or not, how often to refresh or manually refresh, and so on).

**jgsuf** · 08-21-2014, 01:48 PM

Thanks! Unfortunately, they aren't the same file. My job requires several files to be imported throughout the year, and they are all different. The 'regular' way is incredibly time-consuming---I was hoping to find an easier way. I've heard you can do it in Access.