How can I save a Numbers spreadsheet as a tab delimited file?

Question

Okay, I would like to save a Numbers spreadsheet as a tab delimited file. But of course I can't do that, since Numbers only saves as a comma separated values file.
Plan B: I can open up a CSV file created by Numbers in TextEdit, and I would like to Find and Replace all the commas with tabs. So I open up the Find window, enter a comma under Find, but of course when I put the cursor in the Replace blank and hit the Tab key, it just goes to the next blank instead of giving me a Tab.
Is there a way I can get a Tab into that blank so I can replace all the commas with tabs?
--Dave

Answer 1

Hello
When we use TextEdit as I described, rows are separated by Returns.
It appears that your program requires LineFeeds.
Here is a neat soluce.
Save this script as an Application Bundle.
--\[SCRIPT tsv2csv]
(* copy to the clipboard a block of datas separated by tabs
run the script
You will get on the desktop a csv file named from the current date-time.
The values separator is set to match the Bento's requirements:
If the decimal separator is period, the script uses commas.
If the decimal separator is comma, the script uses semi-colons.
This may be changed thru the setting of the property maybeSemiColon.
According to the property needLF,
embedded Returns will be replaced by LineFeeds
or
embedded LineFeeds will be replaced by Returns
Yvan KOENIG (Vallauris, FRANCE)
le 10 octobre 2008
property needLF : true
(* true = replace Returns by LineFeeds
false = replace LineFeeds by Returns *)
property maybeSemicolon : true
(* true = use semiColons if decimal separator is comma
false = always uses commas *)
--=====
try
set |données| to the clipboard as text
on error
error "the clipboard doesn't contain text datas !"
end try
set line_feed to ASCII character 10
if |données| contains tab then
if maybeSemicolon then
if character 2 of (0.5 as text) is "," then
set |données| to my remplace(|données|, tab, quote & ";" & quote)
else
set |données| to my remplace(|données|, tab, quote & "," & quote)
end if -- character 2 of (0.5…
else
set |données| to my remplace(|données|, tab, quote & "," & quote)
end if -- maybeSemiColon
end if -- |données| contains tab
if needLF then
if |données| contains return then set |données| to my remplace(|données|, return, line_feed)
set |données| to my remplace(|données|, line_feed, quote & line_feed & quote)
else
if |données| contains line_feed then set |données| to my remplace(|données|, line_feed, return)
|données| to my remplace(|données|, return, quote & return & quote)
end if -- needLF
set |données| to quote & |données| & quote
set p2d to path to desktop as text
set nom to my remplace(((current date) as text) & ".csv", ":", "-") (* unique name *)
tell application "System Events" to make new file at end of folder p2d with properties {name:nom}
write |données| to file (p2d & nom)
--=====
on remplace(t, tid1, tid2)
local l
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tid1
set l to text items of t
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tid2
set t to l as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return t
end remplace
--=====
--[/SCRIPT]
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 10 octobre 2008 13:47:36)