Convert Text File to Excel

What this does

From Text/CSV reads a .txt or .csv file through Power Query: it previews the data, guesses the delimiter (tab, comma, semicolon), lets you pick the encoding, and loads the result as a refreshable query. The legacy Text Import Wizard does the same job with fixed-width support and per-column types, but is hidden until you re-enable it under File ▸ Options ▸ Data. Text already pasted into one column is split with Text to Columns instead. The same idea underpins a lot of everyday Excel work, so the few minutes spent getting it right here pay back across every sheet you build afterwards. Treat it as a pattern, not a one-off, and it stops being something you look up and starts being something you reach for. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “convert text file to excel”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected cells visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. The point is a data step that keeps your analysis trustworthy, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.

A worked example

orders.txt contains tab-separated lines like 007→Bolt M8→42. Data ▸ Get Data ▸ From Text/CSV detects the tab delimiter and shows three columns; click Transform Data, set the first column's type to Text, then Close & Load — the ID stays 007 instead of collapsing to 7. Exports from databases, loggers, and legacy systems arrive as plain text; a controlled import gets them into rows and columns without losing zeros, dates, or special characters. One habit worth forming early: name the cells that hold your inputs, so the formula reads in plain language instead of a string of cell addresses. A reviewer — or you in three months — can then follow the logic without decoding what B7 and D2 were supposed to mean, which is most of what makes a sheet maintainable.

In Google Sheets

Everything above works in Google Sheets too. Excel and Sheets share the formula syntax used here; only the surrounding menus are arranged differently. That portability is deliberate — learn it once and it follows you between the two tools and across Windows and Mac. Nothing on this page is behind a login: the tool runs entirely in your browser, the formula is shown in full with one-click copy, and the steps work the same on Windows and Mac. That is the whole promise here — the exact answer, a way to prove it on your own numbers, and just enough context to make it stick. If you take one thing from this page on “convert text file to excel”, make it the habit rather than the keystrokes: set the problem up with labelled inputs, reference those cells, and let Excel do the recomputing. Bookmark the page for the syntax, but do the example once in a blank sheet and check it against the tool above — five minutes of hands-on practice fixes the method in memory far better than re-reading, and it surfaces the small snags while they are still harmless. After that the technique is genuinely yours: faster than searching for it again, and reliable enough to drop into work that other people depend on.

Common mistakes

• Loading ID columns as numbers, which strips leading zeros — set the column type to Text first.
• Accepting the guessed delimiter when the file actually uses semicolons.
• Garbled umlauts or accents from the wrong encoding — choose 65001: UTF-8 as File Origin.
• Choosing Fixed width for a delimited file (or the reverse), which shreds the columns.
• Hunting for the old Text Import Wizard — re-enable it under File ▸ Options ▸ Data ▸ legacy import wizards.

Frequently asked questions