Flat file import

The company I am working for is looking to replace the Microsoft Office software. Even though I am not involved with the final product, over the last several weeks, I took it upon myself to look at LibreOffice to see how well it might replace Office. I concentrated on Calc and Base since I use Excel and Access fairly regularly. Generally, I did not see any major issues except for one, at least for us.

The biggest thing I saw was in the import of flat/text files to Calc and Base. In Calc, there seems to be no way to import a file to the current spreadsheet. The flat file always opens as a new file. The data would need to be copied from there to the active file for use.

In Base, there is no ability to import a flat file to a new or existing table. It looks like the flat file can be linked to the database, but the data cannot be merged within the table structure of the Base file.

Did I miss something in my testing of LO? Is there an enhancement in the pipeline? Any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

The flat files we use have extensions of “txt” or “csv”. I cannot attach a sample because those extensions are not allowed.

Attached is a sample file. The extension should be changed to “txt”. DepartmentMaster.ods

Mike: I did not find the Sheet | Insert Sheet From File initially. That function would work the first time a file is imported. But, we usually import updated data to the active sheet (my apologies for being unclear), replacing any previous data. As I understand it, your suggestion would not allow those re-imports.

Would it be possible for you to anonymize a sample file and upload it here? To upload, please edit your question.

It is quite common here to rename a file to an allowed extension and adding a hint about the rename and its original extension / format.

In Calc, there seems to be no way to import a file to the current spreadsheet

Are you talking about something like SheetInsert Sheet from FIle?