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. Keep the inputs visible and clearly labelled and the whole thing stays auditable — anyone who opens the file later, including you, can see at a glance exactly what feeds the result and change one assumption without hunting through the formula. Treat “text file to excel” as a small repeatable workflow rather than a one-off click you hope to remember next time. Use a small test block before the live file, so any surprise in the affected cells shows up while it is still harmless. 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. That turns a data step that keeps your analysis trustworthy into a method you can reuse, explain, and defend when the workbook leaves your screen.

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. If there is any chance you will reuse this, drop it into a small template tab right now: a labelled input area on the left and the formula beside it, checked once against the tool above. Next time the same question comes up, the answer is a single paste away instead of a rebuild from memory.

In Google Sheets

Google Sheets handles this almost identically to Excel. The formula syntax above is the same, and the menu lives under a slightly different label rather than a ribbon tab. Use the platform toggle at the top of the page to switch every keyboard shortcut between Windows and Mac, and expect at most cosmetic differences in naming. 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 “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