<chapter id="importexport">
<chapterinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Pamela</firstname>
<surname>Robert</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>pamroberts@blueyonder.co.uk</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>
</chapterinfo> 
<title>Importing and Exporting Foreign Formats</title>
<para>&kspread; has a limited ability to import (read) and export (write)
spreadsheet files with foreign formats. &kspread;'s capabilities at the time
of writing are summarized in the table below, for more up to date
information visit <ulink url="http://www.koffice.org/filters/status.phtml">
http://www.koffice.org/filters/status.phtml</ulink>.</para>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="3">
<thead>
<row>
<entry> Format </entry>
<entry> Import </entry>
<entry> Export </entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>

<row><entry>Applix Spreadsheet</entry>
<entry>Beta</entry>
<entry>None</entry>
</row>

<row><entry>Comma Separated Values (<link linkend="csvdata"><acronym>CSV
</acronym></link>)</entry>
<entry>Good</entry>
<entry>Good</entry>
</row>

<row><entry>dBase</entry>
<entry>Beta</entry>
<entry>None</entry>
</row>

<row><entry>Excel 97/2000</entry>
<entry>Good</entry>
<entry>None</entry>
</row>

<row><entry>Gnumeric</entry>
<entry>Beta</entry>
<entry>Beta</entry>
</row>

<row><entry>HTML</entry>
<entry>None</entry>
<entry>Beta</entry>
</row>

<row><entry>Quattro Pro</entry>
<entry>Beta</entry>
<entry>None</entry>
</row>

</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<para>To import a foreign file just load it as though it were a &kspread;
native file with <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>
Open...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
<para>To export a &kspread; file in a different format select <menuchoice>
<guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Save As...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>
and select the format from the <guilabel>Filter:</guilabel> combo box.
Although &kspread; automatically adds a <literal role="extension">
.ksp</literal> extension to the names of files saved in its native format,
you should add the correct extension for foreign formats.</para>

<sect1 id="csvdata">
<title><acronym>CSV</acronym> Data</title>
<para>Tables of data are often held in text files with the values in a
line being separated by a comma, space, tab or other character,
for example <emphasis>123, 456, 789, abcd, efgh</emphasis>. Such files
are commonly called <quote><acronym>CSV</acronym></quote> (Comma Separated
Values) files, even though the separating character may not be a comma.</para>
<para>If you ask &kspread; to open a text file it assumes that the file is
in <acronym>CSV</acronym> format and launches a dialog box that allows you to
specify the delimiter (separating character) used by the file, and shows how
the data items will be placed into different spreadsheet cells.</para>
<para>Other options in this dialog box let you define the <guilabel>Format
</guilabel> of the spreadsheet cells, whether text quote characters should be
removed, and whether the first line(s) of the file should be ignored.</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>


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