Save in a .prn format
 

I am using Excel 2002 and due to a document management upgrade are now
unable to do File, Save As and get a list in order to choose to save
to a .prn format. I did find code on a Microsoft's MVP site
(McGimpsey and Associates) that gets close but not perfect. The
original file is two columns - the first is text and the second is
numbers right-aligned. When the file is created from the drop-down
list the second column of numbers is right-aligned in the output
file. The code I tried does not right-aligned the second column
therefore the numbers are not lined up properly. Do you know of
anyway I can get this to right-align so it looks like it did before.

Answer: Save in a .prn format
 

Yes, I can help you with that. Here's how you can save an Excel file in .prn format and ensure that the second column of numbers is right-aligned in the output file:

1. Open the Excel file that you want to save in .prn format.
2. Click on "File" in the top left corner of the screen.
3. Click on "Save As" in the drop-down menu.
4. In the "Save As" dialog box, click on the drop-down menu next to "Save as type" and select "PRN (*.prn)".
5. Choose the location where you want to save the file and give it a name.
6. Click on the "Save" button.
7. In the "Text Import Wizard" dialog box that appears, select "Delimited" and click on "Next".
8. In the next screen, make sure that "Tab" is selected as the delimiter and click on "Next".
9. In the next screen, you can choose the format for each column. For the second column of numbers, select "Text" as the format and click on "Finish".

The file will now be saved in .prn format with the second column of numbers right-aligned.

Save in a .prn format
 

Saved from a previous post:

There's a limit of 240 characters per line when you save as .prn files. So if
your data wouldn't create a record that was longer than 240 characters, you can
save the file as .prn.

I like to use a fixed width font (courier new) and adjust the column widths
manually. But this can take a while to get it perfect. (Save it, check the
output in a text editor, back to excel, adjust, save, and recheck in that text
editor. Lather, rinse, and repeat!)

Alternatively, you could concatenate the cell values into another column:

=LEFT(A1&REPT(" ",5),5) & LEFT(B1&REPT(" ",4),4) & TEXT(C1,"000,000.00")

(You'll have to modify it to match what you want.)

Drag it down the column to get all that fixed width stuff.

Then I'd copy and paste to notepad and save from there. Once I figured out that
ugly formula, I kept it and just unhide that column when I wanted to export the
data.

If that doesn't work for you, maybe you could do it with a macro.

Here's a link that provides a macro:
http://google.com/groups?threadm=015...0a% 40phx.gbl

wrote:

I am using Excel 2002 and due to a document management upgrade are now
unable to do File, Save As and get a list in order to choose to save
to a .prn format. I did find code on a Microsoft's MVP site
(McGimpsey and Associates) that gets close but not perfect. The
original file is two columns - the first is text and the second is
numbers right-aligned. When the file is created from the drop-down
list the second column of numbers is right-aligned in the output
file. The code I tried does not right-aligned the second column
therefore the numbers are not lined up properly. Do you know of
anyway I can get this to right-align so it looks like it did before.

--

Dave Peterson