How do I open a file with a .tsv extension as a .csv file on a Mac OSX (Lion?) using OpenOffice Calc.

Richard_Quadling1 · September 14, 2012, 10:26am

Hello.

I'm new to using a Mac and some of the things I can do in Windows I'm
unable to even work out the question for on a Mac, so please bear with me.

The files are generated from an automated system, several hundred a day and
have a .tsv extension (can't change it for every file). The files are UTF-8
encoded text files with TAB separated content.

I need to be able to double click the file and have it open in Libre Office
Calc. Even if it has to ask me to choose the delimiter to process it with.

I've no idea if this is possible. On Windows, I'd associate .tsv with Excel
and all would be "just done".

I can't even find Calc for LibreOffice, only the LibreOffice.app in my
Applications directory - again, this may be me - I'm VERY VERY new to Mac
and the differences are sometimes confounding.

If I try to open Libre Office first and then open a Spreadsheet file, the
open file dialogue doesn't allow me to pick the .tsv files. They are all
greyed out.

Really stuck. Renaming the files first, editing the content as I need, and
then reversing the rename takes forever on a mac - OK I know this bit is
me, I'm so used to doing everything from the keyboard and having to
constantly go to the mouse to do things just beeps me off a bit.

If I get Finder to open .tsv files all the time, they open in the word
processor part.

Any useful suggestions would be brilliant!

Thank you.

Richard Quadling.

Mas_gemini · September 14, 2012, 10:31am

You can force the file to open with any application you wish on a mac.
Check out http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2291

I am unable to tell you the path to the calc executable on a mac. maybe
someone else could assist you with that portion.

Tom_Davies · September 14, 2012, 12:06pm

Hi
It's worth getting a book about Macs. A quick google search gave me a few good looking links to online guidance.

The official LibreOffice guides have a useful page early on that gives the Mac equivalents of the right-click and stuff
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications
Also i think it helps to download the "Getting Started with LibreOffice" guide so that you can dip into it for odd bits&bobs. It sounds like you might appreciate the Calc guide too!

There should be a menu or a set of icons somewhere that opens individual elements of LibreOffice, perhaps down the side or at the top of the screen? On Windows the equivalent is almost always on the bottom of the screen and a bit more basic but in other OSes they tend to be a tad more sophisticated. I've not used a Mac in years but i do use Ubuntu which seems to be trying to look more like a Mac these days, and Ubuntu has a weird dock thing down the left hand side.

Has anyone seen Alex lately?
Regards from
Tom

Keith_Bainbridge1 · September 14, 2012, 12:30pm

G'day Richard,

I gave up Mac a while ago but try this

In finder, right click (or 2 fingers on a touchpad) on the file, choose
Calc. I think there is an option to 'always use this....

Regards
Thanks

Keith Bainbridge
PO Box 324
BELMONT Vic 3216 Australia
+61 (0)408 522 706

keith.bainbridge.3216@gmail.com

Tom_Davies · September 14, 2012, 12:32pm

HI
Errr, i'm not sure if this link might help for this but it might help in the future.

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/UserProfile

The User Profile is where all the settings and configurations are kept and it's slightly different across the major platforms.

Dohhh, i just found a link showing the Mac dock is at the bottom too

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#anatomy
Grrrr. At least there is something at the top too so Gnome users (like me) wont be too alienated. I got that link from this page
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

Regards from
Tom

________________________________
From: Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk>
To: Mas <tier3support@gmail.com>; "users@global.libreoffice.org" <users@global.libreoffice.org>
Sent: Friday, 14 September 2012, 13:06
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] How do I open a file with a .tsv extension as a .csv file on a Mac OSX (Lion?) using OpenOffice Calc.

Hi
It's worth getting a book about Macs. A quick google search gave me a few good looking links to online guidance.

The official LibreOffice guides have a useful page early on that gives the Mac equivalents of the right-click and stuff
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications
Also i think it helps to download the "Getting Started with LibreOffice" guide so that you can dip into it for odd bits&bobs. It sounds like you might appreciate the Calc guide too!

There should be a menu or a set of icons somewhere that opens individual elements of LibreOffice, perhaps down the side or at the top of the screen? On Windows the equivalent is almost always on the bottom of the screen and a bit more basic but in other OSes they tend to be a tad more sophisticated.

I've not used a Mac in years but i do use Ubuntu which seems to be trying to look more like a Mac these days, and Ubuntu has a weird dock thing down the left hand side.

Has anyone seen Alex lately?
Regards from
Tom

________________________________
From: Mas <tier3support@gmail.com>
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Sent: Friday, 14 September 2012, 11:31
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] How do I open a file with a .tsv extension as a .csv file on a Mac OSX (Lion?) using OpenOffice Calc.

Hello.

I'm new to using a Mac and some of the things I can do in Windows I'm
unable to even work out the question for on a Mac, so please bear with me.

The files are generated from an automated system, several hundred a day and
have a .tsv extension (can't change it for every file). The files are UTF-8
encoded text files with TAB separated content.

I need to be able to double click the file and have it open in Libre Office
Calc. Even if it has to ask me to choose the delimiter to process it with.

I've no idea if this is possible. On

Windows, I'd associate .tsv with Excel

and all would be "just done".

I can't even find Calc for LibreOffice, only the LibreOffice.app in my
Applications directory - again, this may be me - I'm VERY VERY new to Mac
and the differences are sometimes confounding.

If I try to open Libre Office first and then open a Spreadsheet file, the
open file dialogue doesn't allow me to pick the .tsv files. They are all
greyed out.

Really stuck. Renaming the files first, editing the content as I need, and
then reversing the rename takes forever on a mac - OK I know this bit is
me, I'm so used to doing everything from the keyboard and having to
constantly go to the mouse to do things just beeps me off a bit.

If I get Finder to open .tsv files all the time, they open in the word
processor part.

Any useful suggestions

would be brilliant!

Villeroy · September 14, 2012, 1:07pm

Am 14.09.2012 12:25, Richard Quadling wrote:

Hello.

I'm new to using a Mac and some of the things I can do in Windows I'm
unable to even work out the question for on a Mac, so please bear with me.

The files are generated from an automated system, several hundred a day and
have a .tsv extension (can't change it for every file). The files are UTF-8
encoded text files with TAB separated content.

I need to be able to double click the file and have it open in Libre Office
Calc. Even if it has to ask me to choose the delimiter to process it with.

You can have it much easier.
Collect them all in one directory.

Database

[X] Connect to existing database
Type: Text
Specify the directory of the collection, the .tsv suffix, the delimiter etc.
[X] Register the database.
Save the database file. It is just a configuration file without data. The data are only in your file collection.

Usage: In Writer or Calc hit F4 and drag into your document what you need.

Dragging a table icon from the left pane into Calc creates an import range linked to the file.
The data view on the right pane can easily be filtered and sorted. YOu can drag (copy) selected rows into a spreadsheet.
In Writer you can also drag column headers into the document which generates mail merge fields (place holders for one field value per print out).

planas · September 14, 2012, 1:08pm

Richard

Hello.

I'm new to using a Mac and some of the things I can do in Windows I'm
unable to even work out the question for on a Mac, so please bear with me.

The files are generated from an automated system, several hundred a day and
have a .tsv extension (can't change it for every file). The files are UTF-8
encoded text files with TAB separated content.

I need to be able to double click the file and have it open in Libre Office
Calc. Even if it has to ask me to choose the delimiter to process it with.

I've no idea if this is possible. On Windows, I'd associate .tsv with Excel
and all would be "just done".

I can't even find Calc for LibreOffice, only the LibreOffice.app in my
Applications directory - again, this may be me - I'm VERY VERY new to Mac
and the differences are sometimes confounding.

If I try to open Libre Office first and then open a Spreadsheet file, the
open file dialogue doesn't allow me to pick the .tsv files. They are all
greyed out.

Really stuck. Renaming the files first, editing the content as I need, and
then reversing the rename takes forever on a mac - OK I know this bit is
me, I'm so used to doing everything from the keyboard and having to
constantly go to the mouse to do things just beeps me off a bit.

If I get Finder to open .tsv files all the time, they open in the word
processor part.

Any useful suggestions would be brilliant!

Thank you.

Richard Quadling.

As an experiment, change the extension on one of a copy of a files from
*.tsv to *.csv. From your description, it sounds like *.tsv is a tab
delimited text file and *.csv nominally is comma delimited text file.

When importing into Calc make sure to highlight Tab as the delimiter not
comma, Calc will remember the last delimiter used.

If this is successful there are two possible options: change the default
settings of the program that generated the file or determine an "easy"
way to convert the *.tsv files to *.csv files.lo

Tom_Davies · September 14, 2012, 1:45pm

Hi
For this answer i think after successfully opening 1 test-file renamed from tsv to csv and then changing the default from commas to tabs Calc should (hopefully) automatically open tsv's just by double-clicking on the tsv files.

So, Jays answer becomes the set-up process and then normal use is just to open the files as normal without having to rename any of them.

As usual i think Andreas' answer, the database route, might well be a technically better answer and if you can follow it you gain far more flexibility in using the data contained in the tsv. The idea of using a database is a bit scary because
1. people make such a fuss about it and
2. there is not much documentation about how to set-up so that it works well (but Andreas is already helping you with targeted and highly specific advice about that and that type of advice beats generic documentation anyway).

Regards from
Tom

iplaw67 · September 14, 2012, 2:15pm

Hi Richard,

I need to be able to double click the file and have it open in Libre

Office

Calc. Even if it has to ask me to choose the delimiter to process it with.

I've no idea if this is possible. On Windows, I'd associate .tsv with Excel
and all would be "just done".

Select a TSV file with the trackpad/mouse, then press Cmd-I, this will
bring up the properties dialog of the file.

You will see a dropdown list box called "Open with...". Choose the app
that you want to open this file with.

Now click on the Change/Apply to all button underneath the dropdown
list. That should propagate the change system-wide. Beware though, that
even this doesn't always work, especially if you have several programs
that are capable of reading the file type.

I can't even find Calc for LibreOffice, only the LibreOffice.app in my
Applications directory - again, this may be me - I'm VERY VERY new to Mac
and the differences are sometimes confounding.

Calc can be launched directly from a Terminal with the following command
(adapted to the installation path of your LO installation) :

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice --calc

or alternatively :

open -a LibreOffice.app --args --calc

Alex

Richard_Quadling1 · September 14, 2012, 3:23pm

Seems I've forgotten to reply-to-all (sorry peeps) ...

OK. I've clearly not explained myself. And I know Windows isn't
Mac/*nix/etc.

I know I can rename the files back and forth all day long. That is EXACTLY
what I'm already doing. It is plainly a stupid way to go.

I know I could type lovely long command lines - but why? I want to just
double click a file and get it to do what I want. And I can't seem to find
even the simplest questions.

If I could find the mechanics that associates a file extension to a
program, I'd be onto a winner with the 'open -a ...' option.

'open -a LibreOffice.app --args --calc
/development/_data_canonical/acczuk.tsv'

works perfectly from the command line. It does exactly what I want.

So, how do I make THIS the command that is ran when I double click a file?

Richard_Quadling1 · September 14, 2012, 3:45pm

Non Mac users of LibreOffice are completely missing the fact that
LibreOffice.app is all that the UI shows. Not calc, or whatever the other
modules are called.

And so, I can EASILY associate a tsv file with LibreOffice. No problems
there at all.

But it opens it in the word processor.

I want to associate it with the command line (tested - works)

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Framewopen -a
LibreOffice.app --args --calc *****

where ***** is the full path of the file I've double clicked.

This I can do in Windows.

Am I alone in thinking I'm missing a real trick here?

The file arrive on the network automatically, I just want to open one when
I need to, edit it and save it. Other apps deal with the files changing.

Richard_Quadling1 · September 14, 2012, 3:51pm

Non Mac users of LibreOffice are completely missing the fact that
LibreOffice.app is all that the UI shows. Not calc, or whatever the other
modules are called.

And so, I can EASILY associate a tsv file with LibreOffice. No problems
there at all.

But it opens it in the word processor.

I want to associate it with the command line (tested - works)

open -a LibreOffice.app --args --calc *****

where ***** is the full path of the file I've double clicked.

This I can do in Windows.

Am I alone in thinking I'm missing a real trick here?

The file arrive on the network automatically, I just want to open one when
I need to, edit it and save it. Other apps deal with the files changing.

PAUSE ...

As the saying goes "There's an app for that". Seems I have to buy this
functionality! http://www.metakine.com/products/magiclaunch/

Downloaded/installed and it works as I expect. Does exactly what I want.
Pity I can't find this without paying for it.

Tom_Davies · September 14, 2012, 3:55pm

Hi
Errr, in Gnome i could put an icon on the top taskbar to open an app and then configure the command-line call it makes, for example to force LibreOffice to open as Calc, and then drop files onto that icon. Is that possible in Mac? or something even better?
Regards from
Tom

Villeroy · September 14, 2012, 4:12pm

Am 14.09.2012 17:44, Richard Quadling wrote:

The file arrive on the network automatically, I just want to open one when
I need to, edit it and save it. Other apps deal with the files changing.

And what prevents you from doing so? What's wrong with Writer or any other text editor?
Even if you manage to load the text file into the calculator component, you will find out that it does not do what you want it to do.
It is the exact same issue as in the last csv topic ("Date will not format or sort when imported into calc (ods)").
Base is the most convenient solution to deal with huge collections of similarly structured text tables.
Instead of File>Open... Type: Text(*.csv), import dialog ... and ending up with unformatted raw data in a completely useless stand-alone sheet, you can hit F4 and drag the tsv/csv/abc/xyz data into your sheet template which resembles the number formats you want to export after editing. In addition your template may include all the bells and whistles of a spreadsheet (formulas, conditional formattings, charts).

F4, 2 clicks and a drag&drop. That's all it takes.

iplaw67 · September 14, 2012, 4:14pm

Hi Richard,

I know I could type lovely long command lines - but why? I want to just
double click a file and get it to do what I want. And I can't seem to find
even the simplest questions.

If I could find the mechanics that associates a file extension to a
program, I'd be onto a winner with the 'open -a ...' option.

The only thing I could find was this :

http://stuporglue.org/openoffice-org-aqua-rocks/

scroll down the page to the OpenOffice.org application launchers item.
Assuming that the download still works, you would have to adapt whatever
magic was used to point to your LibreOffice.app location.

These used to work with OpenOffice.org 2, I had them at one stage on a
Tiger installation (OSX 10.4).

The app bundle for LibreOffice on Mac does not provide separate apps,
rather modules which can be activated from the command line (as you
found out) - call it a missing feature if you like.

For most people, this is not a problem, but in your case, it is. You
could always file a bug report for an enhancement, in the hope that
someone might produce some way to get what you want, but there really
aren't that many specialised Mac developers on the project,
unfortunately, at least not at the moment.

Alex

Villeroy · September 14, 2012, 4:35pm

A searchable forum with a subforum for Mac related questions, attachments, pictures and many competent contributors: http://user.services.openoffice.org/

Searching the Mac forum:
http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=46590&p=215738&hilit=writer+calc#p215738