Tribblix: manual page: ssconvert.1

SSCONVERT(1) GNOME SSCONVERT(1)

NAME

ssconvert - a command line spreadsheet format converter

SYNOPSIS

ssconvert [OPTIONS] infile outfile

ssconvert [OPTIONS] --merge-to outfile infile1 infile2 ...

DESCRIPTION

ssconvert is a command line utility to convert spreadsheet files
between various spreadsheet file formats. It is a companion utility
to Gnumeric, the powerful spreadsheet program created by the GNOME
project.

ssconvert accepts either file names or URIs as infile outfile. The
special URIs fd://0 and fd://1 can be used for standard input and
standard output respectively.

OPTIONS

This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with single
letter options starting with a single dash (`-') and longer options
starting with two dashes (`--').

Main options

--recalc
Recalculate all cells before writing the result.

--set CELL=CONTENTS
Set the value of CELL to CONTENTS. To put an expression in a
cell, add an extra =, for example --set "A11==A10+1". This
option may be repeated as many times as needed. The workbook
will be recalculated after all cells have been set, provided
that the workbook is set for automatic recalculation. If not,
recalculation can be forced with --recalc.

-v, --verbose
Be slightly more verbose about what is going on.

--list-exporters
List the available exporters (file formats that can be
written).

-T, --export-type=ID
Specify which exporter to use; see below for a list. This is
only necessary when the right format does not follow from the
output file name. The list of available export formats can be
generated using the --list-exporters option. However, when
image export is requested using the --export-graphs option,
the list of image formats should be consulted instead. That
list can be generated using the --list-image-formats option.

-O, --export-options=optionsstring
Specify parameters for the chosen exporter. optionsstring is
a list of parameter=value pairs, separated by spaces. The
parameter names and values allowed are specific to the
exporter and are documented below. Multiple parameters can be
specified

--export-graphs
Export the graphs (or charts) inside the input spreadsheet to
numbered image files (SVG by default). The list of available
image formats can be printed with --list-image-formats

--list-importers
List the available importers (file formats that can be read).
-I, --import-type=ID Specify which importer to use; see below
for a list. This is only necessary when the right format does
not follow from the input file name.

--list-image-formats
List the available image formats for graph export

-E, --import-encoding=STRING
Specify an encoding for imported content.

-M, --merge-to=FILENAME
Merge a collection of workbooks into one. Sheet size will
expand to the largest in all the workbooks. Names in the
scope of individual workbooks will end up in the scope of the
merged workbook. The merge will be aborted if there are name
conflicts.

-S, --export-file-per-sheet
Export a file for each sheet if the exporter only supports one
sheet at a time. The output filename is treated as a template
in which sheet number is substituted for %n, sheet name is
substituted for %s, and sheet object name is substituted for
%o in case of graph export. If there are no substitutions, a
default of ".%n" is added.

Help options

--version
Display ssconvert's version.

-h, --help, --usage
Display a brief usage message.

--help-all
Show all help options.

--help-libspreadsheet
Show Gnumeric options.

LIST OF IMPORTER/EXPORTER IDS
The following IDs can be can be used both for import (reading) and
export (writing).

Gnumeric_XmlIO:sax
Gnumeric's XML file format (*.gnumeric)

Gnumeric_OpenCalc:openoffice
OpenDocument <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument >
or OpenOffice Calc <URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Calc > (*.sxc,
*.ods) format. As an exporter, this is ODF/OpenOffice without
foreign elements (*.ods).

Gnumeric_dif:dif
Data Interchange Format <URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Interchange_Format > (*.dif)

Gnumeric_paradox:paradox
Paradox database <URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_%28database%29 > or
primary index file (*.db, *.px)

Gnumeric_stf:stf_assistant
Text (configurable)

Gnumeric_sylk:sylk
MultiPlan <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplan >
Symbolic Link (SYLK) <URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SYmbolic_LinK_%28SYLK%29 >
(*.slk)

Gnumeric_Excel:xlsx
Microsoft Excel (tm) 2007 ("Office Open XML", OOXML <URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLSX > ) format

LIST OF IMPORTANT IMPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_stf:stf_csvtab
Comma or tab separated values (CSV/TSV) (*.csv)

Gnumeric_html:html
HTML (*.html, *.htm)

Gnumeric_Excel:excel
Microsoft Excel (tm) (*.xls)

Gnumeric_Excel:excel_xml
Microsoft Excel (tm) 2003 SpreadsheetML

LIST OF OTHER IMPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_QPro:qpro
Quattro Pro <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_Pro >
(*.wb1, *.wb2, *.wb3)

Gnumeric_applix:applix
Applix (*.as)

Gnumeric_lotus:lotus
Lotus 1-2-3 <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3 >
(*.wk1, *.wks, *.123)

Gnumeric_mps:mps
MPS (Mathematical Programming System) format <URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPS_%28format%29 > Linear
programming and mixed integer programming file format (*.mps)

Gnumeric_oleo:oleo
GNU Oleo <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Oleo >
(*.oleo)

Gnumeric_plan_perfect:pln
PlanPerfect Format (PLN)

Gnumeric_psiconv:psiconv
Psion (*.psisheet)

Gnumeric_sc:sc
SC/xspread

Gnumeric_xbase:xbase
xBase <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBase > (*.dbf) file
format

LIST OF IMPORTANT EXPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_OpenCalc:odf
ODF/OpenOffice with foreign elements (*.ods)

Gnumeric_glpk:glpk
GLPK Linear Program Solver

Gnumeric_html:html40
HTML 4.0 (*.html)

Gnumeric_html:html40frag
HTML (*.html) fragment

Gnumeric_html:xhtml
XHTML (*.html)

Gnumeric_html:xhtml_range
XHTML range - for export to clipboard

Gnumeric_pdf:pdf_assistant
Portable Document Format (*.PDF)

Gnumeric_stf:stf_csv
Comma separated values (CSV)

Gnumeric_Excel:excel_dsf
Microsoft Excel (tm) 97/2000/XP & 5.0/95

LIST OF OTHER EXPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_Excel:excel_biff7
Microsoft Excel (tm) 5.0/95

Gnumeric_Excel:excel_biff8
Microsoft S Excel (tm) 97/2000/XP

Gnumeric_GnomeGlossary:po
Gnome Glossary PO file format

Gnumeric_html:html32
HTML 3.2 (*.html)

Gnumeric_html:latex
LaTeX 2e (*.tex)

Gnumeric_html:latex_table
LaTeX 2e (*.tex) table fragment

Gnumeric_html:roff
TROFF <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff > (*.me)
format.

Gnumeric_lpsolve:lpsolve
LPSolve <URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/lpsolve/ > Mixed
Integer Linear Programming (MILP) solver

OPTIONS FOR THE PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (*.pdf) EXPORTER
sheet Name of the workbook sheet to operate on. You can specify
several sheets by repeating this option. This is ignored if
the object option is given.

active-sheet
Select the active sheet to operate on. The value for this
option is irrelevant, but the equal sign is mandatory.

object Name of the sheet object to print. If this option is given any
sheet option is ignored. Only the first object given is
exported.

paper Paper size. Valid values include "A4" for ISO A4 and
"na_letter_8.5x11in" for US Letter. If an individual graph is
specified through the object option, then a paper size of
"fit" reduces the size of the paper to the size of the graph.

OPTIONS FOR THE CONFIGURABLE TEXT (*.txt) EXPORTER
sheet Name of the workbook sheet to operate on. You can specify
several sheets by repeating this option.

active-sheet
Select the active sheet to operate on. The value for this
option is irrelevant, but the equal sign is mandatory.

eol End Of Line convention; how lines are terminated. "unix" for
linefeed, "mac" for carriage return; "windows" for carriage
return plus linefeed.

charset
The character encoding of the output. Defaults to UTF-8.

locale The locale to use for number and date formatting. Defaults to
the current locale as reported by locale(1). Consult locale
-a output for acceptable values.

quote The character or string used for quoting fields. Defaults to
"\"" (quotation mark / double quote).

separator
The string used to separate fields. Defaults to space.

format How cells should be formatted. Acceptable values: "automatic"
(apply automatic formatting; default), "raw" (output data raw,
unformatted), or "preserve" (preserve the formatting from the
source document).

This deals with the difference between a cell's contents and
the way those contents are formatted.

Consider a cell in a Gnumeric input document that was input as
"4/19/73" in a US locale, with a format set to "d-mmm-yyyy"
and thus formatted as "19-Apr-1973".

With the default format setting of "automatic" it will be
output as "1973/04/19". With "preserve", the formatting will
be preserved and it will be output as "19-Apr-1973". With
"raw" it will be output as "26773" (Gnumeric's internal
representation: days since an epoch).

transliterate-mode
How to handle unrepresentable characters (characters that
cannot be represented in the chosen output character set).
Acceptable values: "transliterate", or "escape".

quoting-mode
When does data need to be quoted? "never", "auto" (puts
quotes where needed), or "always". Defaults to "auto".

quoting-on-whitespace
Controls whether initial or terminal whitespace forces
quoting. Defaults to TRUE.

EXAMPLE

To convert the Gnumeric file foo.gnumeric to a Microsoft Excel(TM)
format file foo.xls:

ssconvert foo.gnumeric foo.xls

The export format can be specified explicitly, to override the
default (which is based on the file extension):

ssconvert --export-type=Gnumeric_stf:stf_csv foo.xls foo.txt

To convert an Excel format file statfuns.xls to a text file,
specifying the semicolon as the separator character:

ssconvert -O 'separator=; format=raw' samples/excel/statfuns.xls
statfuns.txt

To export the charts from the input file input.gnumeric to numbered
SVG files:

ssconvert --export-graphs input.gnumeric 'output.%n.svg'

To export the charts from the input file input.gnumeric to numbered
PNG files:

ssconvert --export-type=png --export-graphs input.gnumeric
'output.%n.png'

LICENSE

ssconvert is licensed under the terms of the General Public License
(GPL), version 2 or 3. For information on this license look at the
source code that came with the software or see the GNU project page
<URL: http://www.gnu.org >.

COPYRIGHT

The copyright on the Gnumeric software and source code is held by the
individual authors as is documented in the source code.

AUTHOR

ssconvert's primary author is Jody Goldberg <jody@gnome.org>;
ssconvert builds on the Gnumeric codebase.

The initial version of this manpage was written by J.H.M. Dassen
(Ray) <jdassen@debian.org>.