strange issue opening a text file in MS Excel

P

Piotr13

Hi,

I have the following problem on a pc with Windows XP Professional:

a simple text file is generated by a program, with the extention XLS.
Lateron that file has to be openen in Excel, however something goes
wrong with the decimal / thousand separator.

For ex. the file

0,001
0,010
0,100
1,000

The first three are interpreted correctly (, being the decimal
separator -> Regional settings are Belgian French - keyboard also),
but the last one, is not seen ONE as it is supposed to, but is seen as
THOUSAND?!! which of course makes a huge difference in our
calculations?!
Has anybody encountered this before?

Something else I've noticed is when checking the properties of the
cells, is that the first three, the ones that are correct, are just
STANDARD cells, the fourth, is a NUMBER with thousand separator.

Any help is welcome, since I have no idea what the cause is.

Thanks
Piotr
 
J

Jim Rech

If you open the file via File, Open (rather than double-clicking) then you
should get the Text Import Wizard. On the third screen of the wizard is an
Advanced button (if you have Excel 2000 or later. Always mention your Excel
version.) There you can designate your thousands separator and decimal
character.

--
Jim Rech
Excel MVP
| Hi,
|
| I have the following problem on a pc with Windows XP Professional:
|
| a simple text file is generated by a program, with the extention XLS.
| Lateron that file has to be openen in Excel, however something goes
| wrong with the decimal / thousand separator.
|
| For ex. the file
|
| 0,001
| 0,010
| 0,100
| 1,000
|
| The first three are interpreted correctly (, being the decimal
| separator -> Regional settings are Belgian French - keyboard also),
| but the last one, is not seen ONE as it is supposed to, but is seen as
| THOUSAND?!! which of course makes a huge difference in our
| calculations?!
| Has anybody encountered this before?
|
| Something else I've noticed is when checking the properties of the
| cells, is that the first three, the ones that are correct, are just
| STANDARD cells, the fourth, is a NUMBER with thousand separator.
|
| Any help is welcome, since I have no idea what the cause is.
|
| Thanks
| Piotr
 
P

Piotr13

That is actually the temporary fix we asked them to do ... but
unfortunately the guy's manager finds this "solution" acceptable. He
wants a "real solution"... always easy to say, when you're not the one
who has to find one though, is it...

Thx for the reply though :)

btw. Excel version is 2000, sorry for not mentioning that

Is it possible do you think, that doing this once manually & selecting
the thousand & decimal separator is something that is remembered by
Excel? I will try it out after office hours on this guys' machine
 
P

Piotr13

My previous post should've been that the guys' manager finds this
"solution" unacceptable of course :)
sorry 'bout the typo
 
J

Jim Rech

I tried to duplicate your problem just to play around with it and was
surprised that I could not. I changed my setting to French, Belgium and
created a text file with the entries in your first post exactly. I gave the
file an XLS extension even though it is not an Excel file. Anyway, it came
in fine. The fourth number came in as 1 not 1000. I didn't exact this. I
have Excel 2000 SP3. I don't know if this is something SP3 fixed. If
you're not patched up to SP3 it might be worth a try.

--
Jim Rech
Excel MVP
| My previous post should've been that the guys' manager finds this
| "solution" unacceptable of course :)
| sorry 'bout the typo
|
| > If you open the file via File, Open (rather than double-clicking) then
you
| > should get the Text Import Wizard. On the third screen of the wizard is
an
| > Advanced button (if you have Excel 2000 or later. Always mention your
Excel
| > version.) There you can designate your thousands separator and decimal
| > character.
| >
| > --
| > Jim Rech
| > Excel MVP
| > | > | Hi,
| > |
| > | I have the following problem on a pc with Windows XP Professional:
| > |
| > | a simple text file is generated by a program, with the extention XLS.
| > | Lateron that file has to be openen in Excel, however something goes
| > | wrong with the decimal / thousand separator.
| > |
| > | For ex. the file
| > |
| > | 0,001
| > | 0,010
| > | 0,100
| > | 1,000
| > |
| > | The first three are interpreted correctly (, being the decimal
| > | separator -> Regional settings are Belgian French - keyboard also),
| > | but the last one, is not seen ONE as it is supposed to, but is seen as
| > | THOUSAND?!! which of course makes a huge difference in our
| > | calculations?!
| > | Has anybody encountered this before?
| > |
| > | Something else I've noticed is when checking the properties of the
| > | cells, is that the first three, the ones that are correct, are just
| > | STANDARD cells, the fourth, is a NUMBER with thousand separator.
| > |
| > | Any help is welcome, since I have no idea what the cause is.
| > |
| > | Thanks
| > | Piotr
 
P

Piotr13

apparently the problem has something to do with the users' Windows
profile. Any other user who logs on to the machine & tries it, doesn't
have any problem opening those files correctly.
I still have to try, renaming the users profile folder & let him logon
& try again, but my guess is, it will work fine & that somehow the
users' profile has become corrupted or damaged in some way...
Question is, what, why, when?! Does anybody have an idea as to what
may have caused this, or how I can find out, what is corrupted?

Thanks!
 
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