A command line spreadsheet format converter
ssconvert [OPTIONS] infile outfile
ssconvert [OPTIONS] --merge-to outfile infile1 infile2 ...
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.
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 (`--').
--recalc
Recalculate all cells before writing the result.
--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.
-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
--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.
-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 and/or sheet name is substituted for %s. If there are not substitutions, a default of ".%s" is added.
-v, --version
Display ssconvert's version.
-h, --help, --usage
Display a brief usage message.
--help-all
Show all help options.
--help-libspreadsheet
Show Gnumeric options.
-L, --lib-dir=STRING
Set the root library directory.
-D, --data-dir=STRING
Adjust the root data directory.
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
\$2 \(laURL: \$1 \(ra\$3 or (*.sxc, *.ods) format. As an exporter, this is ODF/OpenOffice without foreign elements (*.ods).
Gnumeric_dif:dif
(*.dif)
Gnumeric_paradox:paradox
or primary index file (*.db, *.px)
Gnumeric_stf:stf_assistant
Text (configurable)
Gnumeric_sylk:sylk
(*.slk)
Gnumeric_Excel:xlsx
Microsoft Excel (tm) 2007 ("Office Open XML", ) format
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
Gnumeric_QPro:qpro
(*.wb1, *.wb2, *.wb3)
Gnumeric_applix:applix
Applix (*.as)
Gnumeric_lotus:lotus
(*.wk1, *.wks, *.123)
Gnumeric_mps:mps
Linear programming and mixed integer programming file format (*.mps)
Gnumeric_oleo:oleo
(*.oleo)
Gnumeric_plan_perfect:pln
PlanPerfect Format (PLN)
Gnumeric_psiconv:psiconv
Psion (*.psisheet)
Gnumeric_sc:sc
SC/xspread
Gnumeric_xbase:xbase
(*.dbf) file format
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
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
(*.me) format.
Gnumeric_lpsolve:lpsolve
Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) solver
sheet
Name of the workbook sheet to operate on. You can specify several sheets by repeating this option. If this option is not given the active sheet (i. e. the sheet that was active when the file was saved) is used. This is ignored if the object option is given.
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.
sheet
Name of the workbook sheet to operate on. You can specify several sheets by repeating this option. If this option is not given the active sheet (i. e. the sheet that was active when the file was saved) is used.
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 "never".
quoting-on-whitespace
Controls whether initial or terminal whitespace forces quoting. Defaults to TRUE.
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
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
The copyright on the Gnumeric software and source code is held by the individual authors as is documented in the source code.
ssconvert's primary author is Jody Goldberg <[email protected]>; ssconvert builds on the Gnumeric codebase.
The initial version of this manpage was written by J.H.M. Dassen (Ray) <[email protected]>.