How to change a tab delimited text file to a CSV file

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.

1. Open Microsoft Excel.
2. Click on the File tab in the top Ribbon menu and select the Open option.
3. Click the Browse option to bring up the Open or Browse window.
4. Next to the File Name field, click on the File Type drop-down menu and select the Text Files option.
5. Navigate to the location of the text file, select it, and click the Open button.
6. 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.

7. Make sure the Tab option is checked and validate the data is separated correctly in the Data preview section.

8. 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.
9. 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.
10. In the Save As window, select the CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) option in the Save as type drop-down menu.
11. 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.