Mac users help me (spreadsheet formatting)

I got a copy of the file and opened it in Excel 2004 for Mac. I copied the text and pasted it into a new workbook. I then saved it as a csv file. It all worked fine for me. I opened the file in TextEdit and I saw that there is a line break after the street name.

The next question is "what are you trying to do?". If you want to eliminate the extra paragraph break you can do it manually by inserting the cursor at the start of the second line, press delete, add a space if needed, then go to the next line. It is tedious but it will work.

You can also open the file in Word, do a search and replace for the Paragraph mark with a space. Save the file with a csv suffix (Word does not give the option, just select Save As... then change the suffix to csv).

I think I fixed the file the way you want. Send me a PM and I will send it.

FYI, to remove the line breaks in Excel do a find/replace on column D - no need to do it manually. In the "find what" line HOLD down ALT key and type in 0010 (nothing will appear on line) then add a space to the "replace with" line.

This method can be used to convert LB to nuvi 350 format.

This should work on the Mac version of Excel (I know it work on MS version).

As you may suspect, the "CSV" format is different than the "XLS" format. The CSV format is a comma delimited format: every comma in a line of the file denotes a new cell in the column; a return denotes a new row. When commas or other special characters are included in a text intended to be in a single cell, the text is included inside quotes.

When a CSV file is opened in Excel and changed into Excel format and any special characters (like returns) show up as those special characters.

You can return the file to CSV format by doing a "save as - CSV" in Excel.

I think I've got it right... Does this help?

That is useful information. I have another question about Excel. How do you merge the text from multiple columns into one column? I have a csv file that each part of the address was put into a separate column.

I am not sure if ASAP addon works on the Mac version of Excel but I recommend loading that to aid in editing text fields (http://www.asap-utilities.com/).

Here is a link for merging multiple fields:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10065

brentrn, it's easy to merge cells, it the contents are text, but it will take a few steps:

1) open the Excel file in Excel

2) go to the cell in an empty column and the row in which a cell merge is desired.

3) with the cursor in that empty cell, select in the menu bar: Insert-Function-Concatenate. It should bring up a Concatenate window.

4) click in the first text box, then click on the first cell you want to merge.

5) click in the second text box, then click on the second cell you want to merge.

6) click OK in the Concatenate function window

7) place cursor on the lower right corner of the concatenated cell, then drag cursor down column to include all of the rows in which you want the cells merged.

8) save file as CSV format

9) open saved file and remove cells that were concatenated.

Practice on test file first!

Hope this helps.

Tukahoe Mike has given you the basics regarding the concatenate function, but you can also use it to put in spaces or other characters. The command would look like this: =concatenate(cellA,"text",cellB,....) In this example the characters 'text' are added between the contents of the two cells.

The ASAP is for Windows only but I did find a similar Mac Excel add-on, the Mac Excel Expander 4.5. It is free for individual use and can be found at:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/business_finance/macex...

It combined the columns for me with just a couple of clicks!

Thanks Tuckahoemike. I'd quote your comments but I haven't figured out how to do that either. I tried the concatenate trick and it works great. I've spent a lot of time trying to do just that. Now that you showed me how to do it, I seem to remember it from my Appleworks days.

I still don't quite get how to make that line I just put together have line breaks in it. I see it done as in the Culvers POI I mentioned and now know how to take it apart, but I don't see how it was done in the first place. Or did using the concatenate put line breaks in after each cell that was put in??

Thanks to everyone else with your ideas. Any more would be appreciated. I'm sure others have had the same questions and you guys are great to help out.

George

Which of the many functions did you use to combine cells in the Mac Excel Expander?

OK after I posted this I found the Combine cells in the new menu bar. That works neat. Thanks for the help!

Expander>Text Manipulation>Combine Cell Contents

Try this in Excel:

Column D1: Address
Column E1: Zip
Column F1: "enter the following formula"

=D1&Char(10)&E1

Make sure "WRAP TEXT" is turn on in column F
(format Cell/alignment/Wrap text is check.)

NOTE: this will work on MS version of Excel

You have just answered my question.