Nick,

Thanks for your attention. I'm sorry but I expect the following will not be
much help.

The site is a major stockbroker in Australia, and one needs to be a
registered user to logon and download watchlist information, but I really
doubt that there has been a change on the server at the same time I upgraded
and reinstalled everything.

When downloading these files, the downloaded file normally opens in Excel
within an IE6 window and displays no filetype, etc in the heading. The first
indication I can get of filetype is if I try to save it and, as mentioned
earlier, it tries to save it as Text (Tab Delimited).

However, I have just tried the download with a "Save As" option, and before
I specify a file type, it has selected "csv". In fact, if I proceed with that
and save as csv, and then open the saved file, Excel works just fine!

So I obviously have another "workaround", but not the real thing (I just
want to view the file without saving it).

Thanks again for your interest.


"Nick B" wrote:

Interesting. Sounds like, perhaps, a change on the server. Can you provide us
with a link to a sample file? If the file does not have an extension, then it
should be prompting you asking what program to open the file with. If it has
a CSV, then all should be well. Sounds like the files on the server have a
.txt extension instead perhaps. Any chance you can supply us with a link?

"Les M" wrote:

Nick,

The files have commas, and when Excel is using comma as delimiter all is
well. But I have to go through the process of Data/Text to
Columns/Delimited/comma to get Excel to recognise the commas as delimiters -
even though comma is specified in Regional settings as the list separator.

I normally download and open the files without saving them, so at the time
of opening, there isn't a file extension. However, if I download and try to
save, they try to save as "Text (Tab Delimited)". If I override that and
force them to save as .csv, then they will open correctly in future.

What I have always done is simply download and open, use the info (stock
prices) and then exit without saving the file at all. And that's what I'd
like to continue to do. But since moving to Windows XP and reinstalling
Office, it seems that Excel just won't work that way.

"Nick B" wrote:

If you open one of the files in Notepad, before opening in Excel, can you
verify that the files have commas and not another delimiter?
Are the files being saved with the .csv extension, or by any chance are they
being saved with .csv.txt extension? (i.e. the actual extension is being
hidden -- open My Computer, Tools-Folder Options, View tab and verify that
Hide extensions for known file types is NOT selected.)

"Les M" wrote:

I have recently upgraded to Windows XP Home edition and have reinstalled all
my applications. I regularly download csv files from one particular site and
use them in Excel, but now they always download with all data in column A (in
the past they downloaded correctly as csv files, using separate columns).

In Control panel/Regional settings, comma is specified as the list
separator, but this is not having the required effect.

I can go through the "Data/Text to Columns/Delimited/comma" process each
time I download (and that process works), but I would like the default to
operate as it should.

Any helpful advice would be appreciated.