File Formats

In the Save as.. dialog you can choose between various file formats. (see Figure 1)

Figure 1. File Format Selector

Similarly, in the Import.. dialog you can also choose between various file formats. (see Figure 2)

Figure 2. File Format Selector

Most of these formats are provided by plug-ins. If they don't appear on your list of available plug-ins use the Tools Plug-ins... menu item to verify that the appropriate plug-in has been loaded.

Gnumeric XML File Format

The default file format and Gnumeric's native format is an xml based file. The file format is a ascii text based xml format. It is however, typically written and read in a gzip compressed form.

The uncompressed format is human readable and designed to be easily parsed. It is very extensible.

Data Interchange Format

This format is supported by the "Data Interchange Format (DIF) module" plug-in.

Note

This format is available when saving or importing files.

DVI TeX Format

This format is supported by the "HTML & TeX" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

Creation of a dvi file with Gnumeric requires that groff has been installed. If a complete TeX installation is available it is probably advisable to use the LaTeX format (the Section called LaTeX 2e Format) instead, since the created LaTeX file can be extensively customized before creating the dvi file from it.

Figure 3. Gnumeric Sample Screenshot

Example 1. Saving as DVI TeX

The screenshot Figure 3 shows an example Gnumeric file. If we save this file in DVI TeX format and open it using xdvi we obtain Figure 4.

Figure 4. xdvi Screenshot of DVI TeX File

MS Excel (tm) File Formats

This format is supported by the "MS Excel (tm) File Formats" plug-in.

Gnumeric can open files from most recent versions of MS Excel (tm). It can also save files in MS Excel (tm) 95 format.

Experimental Bonobo EFS Format

This format is supported by the "EXPERIMENTAL SAX based XML" plug-in.

Note

This format is available when importing or saving files.

Gnome Glossary PO File Format

This format is supported by the "Gnome Glossary" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

HTML File Formats

These formats are supported by the "HTML & TeX" plug-in.

HTML generated by Gnumeric

Note

This format is only available when importing or opening files.

Very simple and well structured HTML tables can be opened by Gnumeric into an appropriate spreadsheet. In this process, Gnumeric will lose information on merged cells and most other formatting, but the main cell values should be preserved.

HTML 3.2 File Format

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

Gnumeric can create HTML 3.2 files. All sheets of the current workbook are exported. The tables in the HTML 3.2 file contain all cells, whether visible or not, including merged cells and spans. Horizontal as well as vertical alignment is preserved, as are font colors and some font characteristics (italic, bold). These files also include an appropriate preamble.

Example 2. Saving as HTML 3.2

The screenshot Figure 3 in the Section called DVI TeX Format shows an example Gnumeric file. If we save this file in HTML 3.2 format and open it using Mozilla 0.95 we obtain Figure 5.

Figure 5. Mozilla Screenshot of HTML 3.2 File

HTML 4.0 File Format

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

Gnumeric can create HTML 4.0 files. All sheets of the current workbook are exported. The tables in the HTML 4.0 file contain all cells, whether visible or not, including merged cells and spans. Horizontal as well as vertical alignment is preserved, as are some font characteristics (italic, bold) and cell background colors. These files also include an appropriate preamble.

Example 3. Saving as HTML 4.0

The screenshot Figure 3 in the Section called DVI TeX Format shows an example Gnumeric file. If we save this file in HTML 4.0 format and open it using Mozilla 0.95 we obtain Figure 6.

Figure 6. Mozilla Screenshot of HTML 4.0 File

HTML Fragment Format

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

Gnumeric can create HTML fragments. All sheets of the c urrent workbook are exported. The tables in such a fragment file contain all cells, whether visible or not, including merged cells and spans. Horizontal as well as vertical alignment is preserved, as are some font characteristics (italic, bold) as well as cell background and font colors. These files do not contain any preamble. Note that each tag used in these files is valid in some HTML version, the combination of these tags in a Gnumeric generated HTML fragment may not be.

Example 4. Saving as HTML fragment

The screenshot Figure 3 in the Section called DVI TeX Format shows an example Gnumeric file. If we save this file as an HTML fragment and open it using Mozilla 0.95 we obtain Figure 7.

Figure 7. Mozilla Screenshot of HTML Fragment

LaTeX 2e Format

This format is supported by the "HTML & TeX" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

Only the top sheet of the current workbook is exported.

The created LaTeX file can either be input into another LaTeX file (see the Section called Including Tables Into Other Documents) or latexed independently. See the content and the Section called Customizing The LaTeX Tables of the created file for various customization options.

Example 5. Saving as LaTeX file

The screenshot Figure 3 in the Section called DVI TeX Format shows an example Gnumeric file. If we save this file as LaTeX file, tex it using pdflatex and open it using xpdf we obtain Figure 8.

Figure 8. xpdf Screenshot of LaTeX file

Including Tables Into Other Documents

To include an exported Gnumeric table into another LaTeX document you need to use several packages

        \usepackage{color}
        \usepackage{array}
        \usepackage{longtable}
        \usepackage{calc}
        \usepackage{multirow}
        \usepackage{hhline}
        \usepackage{ifthen}  
  

and to add the following lines to the preamble of your document:

        \newlength{\gnumericTableWidth}
        \newlength{\gnumericTableWidthComplete}
  

When you have set up your main document in this way, include each table with:

        \input{mygnumericfile.tex}  
  

Customizing The LaTeX Tables

To switch from portrait to landscape for independently latexed tables, uncomment the line:

	                  %,landscape%
  

to obtain

	\documentclass[12pt%
	                  ,landscape%
                    ]{report}
  

To change the column widths, look for the following section in the LaTeX file:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%                                                                  %%
%% The following are the widths of the various columns. We are      %%
%% defining them here because then they are easier to change.       %%
%% Depending on the cell formats we may use them more than once.    %%
%%                                                                  %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\def\gnumericColA{107pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColB{89pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColC{98pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColD{89pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColE{89pt*\gnumericScale}
  

To change the second column (Column B) to a width of 0.75 inches, we would simply have to modify this code to:

\def\gnumericColA{107pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColB{0.75in}
\def\gnumericColC{98pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColD{89pt*\gnumericScale}
\def\gnumericColE{89pt*\gnumericScale}
  

Linear and Integer Program File Format

This format is supported by the "Linear and integer expression (MPS) format module" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when importing files.

Plan Perfect Format

This format is supported by the "Plan Perfect" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when importing files.

PDF Format

Currently, Gnumeric cannot save directly as a PDF file; but, provided a standard tetex installation is available, the Gnumeric file can be saved as a LaTeX file (see the Section called LaTeX 2e Format), and turned into a PDF file using pdflatex.

See Figure 8 in the Section called LaTeX 2e Format for an example of a created PDF file.

SC/XSpread Format

This format is supported by the "SC/XSpread Format" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when importing files.

Text Format

This format exports Gnumeric spreadsheets as straight text or imports them from straight text files. Both export (save as) as well as import can be highly customized.

The Text Export Druid

After specifying the "Text File Export" Format and a file name in the "Save as.." dialog, the text export druid starts to guide you through the various options:

  1. Specify which sheets to export.

    Figure 9. Specifying which sheets to export

  2. Choose the line terminator to use. You should select it based on the platform you want the created file to be used on. Choose one of several field separators and whether to quote all fields or only as needed. The defaults create the standard Unix csv format.

    Figure 10. Specifying line terminators

  3. Select "Finish" to finally export the selected sheets and create the text file. The standard csv output of Figure 3 in the Section called DVI TeX Format is shown in Figure 11.

    ,"Operating System",,,
    ,DOS,Linux,SCO,
    January,"$1000.00 ","$900.00 ","$500.00 ",
    February,"$900.00 ","$2500.00 ","$300.00 ",
    March,"$800.00 ","$4100.00 ","$100.00 ",
    April,"$700.00 ","$5700.00 ",($100.00),
    May,"$600.00 ","$7300.00 ",($300.00),
    June,"$500.00 ","$8900.00 ",($500.00),
    July,"$400.00 ","$10500.00 ",($700.00),
    August,"$300.00 ","$12100.00 ",($900.00),
    September,"$200.00 ","$13700.00 ",($1100.00),
    October,"$100.00 ","$15300.00 ",($1300.00),
    November,"$0.00 ","$16900.00 ",($1500.00),
    December,($100.00),"$18500.00 ",($1700.00),
    ,,,,
    Totals:,"$5400.00 ","$116400.00 ",($7200.00),
    ,,,,
        

    Figure 11. csv File

The Text Import Druid

After specifying the "Text File Import" Format and a file name in the "Import.." dialog, the text import druid starts to guide you through the various options.

On the first screen of the druid specify the basic format type (fixed width fields or fields separated by specific characters), as well as the line numbers of the lines to import.

Figure 12. Selecting the basic format type

The Text Import Druid for Separated Fields

  1. Figure 13. Separation Customization

    Select the appropriate field separator(s) in the "Separator" frame. Select the "See two separators as one"option if any sequence of separators are supposed to be considered a single separator. The "Example" frame gives immediate feedback on your choices:

    Figure 14. Separation Customization With Correct Selection

  2. Finally select the appropriate format for each input column:

    Figure 15. Selecting Formats

  3. Click the "Finish" button to complete importing the file.

The Text Import Druid for Fixed Width Fields

  1. If you selected fixed width fields you are asked to specify the widths for each field. Click the "Auto Column Discovery" button to have Gnumeric try to determine the fields widths automatically.

    Figure 16.

  2. Finally select the appropriate format for each input column as in Figure 15 in the Section called The Text Import Druid for Separated Fields.

  3. Click the "Finish" button to complete importing the file.

TROFF Format

This format is supported by the "HTML & TeX" plug-in.

Note

This format is only available when saving files.

Files in this format are useful because they can be converted with the groff or troff commands into various other common formats. For example, given a TROFF file myfile.me, the command

  groff -me -t -Tps myfile.me >myfile.ps
  

will create a postscript file of the corresponding table.

Similarly, the command

groff -me -t -Tascii myfile.me >myfile.ascii
  

creates an ascii (straight text) file.

Example 6. Creating an ASCII File

If we save Figure 3 in the Section called DVI TeX Format as a troff file hypothetical-sales.me and then execute the command

groff -me -t -Tascii hypothetical-sales.me >hypothetical-sales.ascii
  

then the file hypothetical-sales.ascii contains:







Sheet 0


+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|          | Operating System |             |            |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|          |       DOS        |    Linux    |    SCO     |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|  January | $1000.00         | $900.00     | $500.00    |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
| February | $900.00          | $2500.00    | $300.00    |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|    March | $800.00          | $4100.00    | $100.00    |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|    April | $700.00          | $5700.00    | ($100.00)  |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|      May | $600.00          | $7300.00    | ($300.00)  |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|     June | $500.00          | $8900.00    | ($500.00)  |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|     July | $400.00          | $10500.00   | ($700.00)  |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|   August | $300.00          | $12100.00   | ($900.00)  |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|September | $200.00          | $13700.00   | ($1100.00) |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|  October | $100.00          | $15300.00   | ($1300.00) |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
| November | $0.00            | $16900.00   | ($1500.00) |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
| December | ($100.00)        | $18500.00   | ($1700.00) |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|          |                  |             |            |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|  Totals: | $5400.00         | $116400.00  | ($7200.00) |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+
|          |                  |             |            |   |
+----------+------------------+-------------+------------+---+

















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