If you have a tab delimited text file, or a text file containing data that is separated by a tab, you can convert the file to a CSV file by using Microsoft Excel. Follow the steps below to perform the file conversion.
- Open Microsoft Excel.
- Click on the File tab in the top Ribbon menu and select the Open option.
- Click the Browse option to bring up the Open or Browse window.
- Next to the File Name field, click on the File Type drop-down menu and select the Text Files option.
- Navigate to the location of the text file, select it, and click the Open button.
- In the Text Import Wizard the Delimited option should already be selected (shown below). Click the Next button to go to Step 2 of the wizard.
Note: If the text file has a header row in it (a row that identifies the name of each column of data), click the checkbox for My data has headers.
- Make sure the Tab option is checked and validate the data is separated correctly in the Data preview section.
- If you want to format each column of data, like Text, Date, or Numeric, click the Next button to go to Step 3 of the wizard and select the format type for each column of data. If you don’t need to format each column of data, click the Finish button.
- The text file data will be converted into spreadsheet format. Again, click on the File tab in the top Ribbon menu and select the Save As option.
- In the Save As window, select the CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) option in the Save as type drop-down menu.
- Type in a name for the CSV file in the File name field, navigate to where you want to save the file, then click the Save button.
The file will be saved as a CSV file and can be opened in a spreadsheet or a text editor program.
Additional information
- See our CSV definition for further information and related links.