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From: Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com>
To: Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com>
Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editing directly from within emacs.
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2020 03:06:07 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <874kk43sdc.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAGP6POKYC70jKM7-PEj9b_jkmijm8oeGrYjvgDAguE1WzP3SGQ@mail.gmail.com> (message from Hongyi Zhao on Wed, 30 Dec 2020 07:39:26 +0800)

Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> writes:

> On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 1:55 AM Robert Thorpe
> <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 5:40 PM Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> * Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> [2020-12-29 07:55]:
>> >> > From this point of view, if we want to have both full-features and
>> >> > powerful capabilities in manipulating spreadsheet, it seems that only
>> >> > the python based programmatic tools/packages, say, openpyxl
>> >> > <https://openpyxl.readthedocs.io>, can meet the requirements
>> >> > currently.
>> >>
>> >> What are you requirements?
>> >
>> > I use Linux as my working environment exclusively. So, I can't access
>> > the native MS Office supplied for macOS/Windows. But I sometimes
>> > really need to manipulate and process MS Office documents, especially
>> > DOCX and XLSX files. Though there are some free and open source office
>> > suites, e.g. LibreOffice, but none of them can completely compatible
>> > with the MS Office.
>> >
>> > So, I want to find a way that can be used to programmatically complete
>> > any possible work done by MS Office word/excel.
>>
>> Who creates the spreadsheet first?  Is it you or someone else?
>
> From/by others, in most instances.
>
>>
>> If it's you then things can be quite simple.  You can create a
>> comma-separated or tab-separated file in Emacs or something else.
>
> Do you mean export the org table with CSV/TSV formats? I noticed that the
> default orgmode table column separator is |.

I was thinking of editing using csv-mode, not using orgmode table.  But
if you have well behaved data it's not hard to change the separate with
a search-and-replace.  You've got to watch out for corner cases though
like commas being used in text.

>> You can then import that file into Libreoffice and then save it as a .XLSX
>> or .XLS file.  You can make a script in Libreoffice to do the import
>> just the way you want it.
>
> Sounds wonderful. Is there such an example script?

Last time I did this a few years ago at work.  I don't have the code
anymore.

You can find a few things like that at the Libreoffice extensions site
though https://extensions.libreoffice.org/ .

>> Things are more difficult if you are given a .XLSX or .DOCX file by
>> someone else.  In that case you have to use Libreoffice or something
>> like it straight away.  You also have to be very careful was re-saving
>> the file with changes because Libreoffice has some subtle
>> incompatabilities with MS Excel and MS Word.
>>
>> If you just want to add new sheets to existing spreadsheets that is not
>> too bad.  The problem is changing values in existing sheets.
>
> You're absolutely right.

BR,
Robert Thorpe



  reply	other threads:[~2020-12-30  3:07 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 30+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-12-28 15:18 Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editing directly from within emacs Hongyi Zhao
2020-12-28 16:21 ` Daniel Martín
2020-12-28 16:51   ` Stefan Monnier
2020-12-28 17:39   ` Filipp Gunbin
2020-12-28 19:47   ` Jean Louis
2020-12-28 21:06     ` Uwe Brauer
2020-12-29  7:32       ` Jean Louis
2020-12-29 15:36         ` Uwe Brauer
2020-12-28 19:36 ` Jean Louis
2020-12-28 19:55   ` Daniele Nicolodi
2020-12-28 20:37     ` Jean Louis
2020-12-29 11:51       ` Stefan Nobis
2020-12-29 13:41         ` Eric S Fraga
2020-12-30 22:19         ` Jean Louis
2020-12-31 12:17           ` Stefan Nobis
2021-01-02  0:48             ` Samuel Wales
2020-12-29  0:06   ` andres.ramirez
2020-12-29  2:29     ` Carson Chittom
2020-12-28 20:12 ` Uwe Brauer
2020-12-29 10:07   ` Eric S Fraga
2020-12-29  4:02 ` Robert Thorpe
2020-12-29  4:53   ` Hongyi Zhao
2020-12-29  7:49     ` Jean Louis
2020-12-29 14:47       ` Hongyi Zhao
2020-12-29 14:59         ` Greg Minshall
2020-12-29 15:34         ` Jean Louis
2020-12-29 17:54         ` Robert Thorpe
2020-12-29 23:39           ` Hongyi Zhao
2020-12-30  3:06             ` Robert Thorpe [this message]
2021-01-08 14:07         ` H. Dieter Wilhelm

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