Comments on: Excel Templates Demystified

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:03:31 +0000

CSV files just open into flat worksheets. What you do is copy the contents of the CSV file and paste it into the template. If this is not appropriate, a little code can always be used to extract the CSV data, split it, and dump it into the template.

By: Eric Shilling

Eric Shilling — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:55:20 +0000

Thanks Jon,
Yes, the Text to Columns function does the job but I don’t know any way to capture or save that specific setup. I’d rather not have to define the column structure to the wizard each time I import a new .csv file.
I think I’ve made a template with text functions that pick up my substrings in each of the right columns. [Saved it into 'My Templates'].
I’ll try it, but now I can’t grasp how to open the .csv file into the new template. It keeps being opened into the normal Excel template and that kills one of the strings into scientific notation. (The file has several long strings, separated by commas; some are all digits.) I keep thinking it’s going to be intuitive from here on.
Thanks again,
Eric

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:00:10 +0000

Eric -

This is part of the Text to Columns functionality on Excel’s Data menu. However, if you are splitting into fields based just on the number of characters, Text to Columns may not be the easiest way to handle this task. If you always have the same number of characters in each column, you could simply use formulas to do the splitting. For example, put a string into cell A1.

To get the first five characters from A1 into B1, put this formula into B1:

=LEFT(A1,5)

To get the next three characters into C1:

=MID(A1,6,3)

where 6 is the starting character.

And so forth.

By: Eric Shilling

Eric Shilling — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:41:16 +0000

Got here searching for Excel help on the web. Haven’t used templates before, but I made one that shows my data the way I want it. Now I want to load my next raw data file into the template.
I was hoping my template would break up the text strings into the columns defined in my template, but I guess that was a little optomistic.
Is there a way to parse a few 20 character strings in a .csv file into a bunch of shorter strings in separarate Excel columns?
I guess I am trying to avoid having to define the field widths in the text import wizard every time I import a file.
Anyway, this ‘breaking up of strings into fields’ is a part of templates that I haven’t seen much discussed.
Eric

By: sam

sam — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:11:37 +0000

Templates are also a way for creating Data entry forms that can be used to update central databases…(Purchase orders, Sales Orders, Time sheets ect)
In the good old days of Excel 2000 there used to be a built in Addin called Template Wizard with Data tracking…..Instead of developing it further MS decided to remove it from XP onwards. (Its still available as a separate download)

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:53:33 +0000

Templates are curiously underused in Excel. I’m not sure why.

I’ve lost count of the number of times people have asked me how to copy sheets and VBA from their application workbook “in order to create a new, blank one based on it”. A template is the ideal solution on these occasions, but it seems rarely to be considered, maybe because creating a new workbook via a ton of VBA code is somehow more satisfying.