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jennybc / 2014-12-01_finessing-excel-line-endings.md
Last active November 17, 2022 13:04
Finessing Excel's stupid line endings

Finessing Excel's stupid line endings

I am sheepish to admit a certain type of routine Microsoft Excel use.

Current example: I am marking for STAT 545. I use R to create a comma delimited marking sheet, by joining the official class list and peer reviews. The sheet contains variables, initially set to NA, where the TAs and I enter official marks and optional comments.

This is where Excel comes in. I like its visual organization of this comma delimited file much more than, say, using a plain text editor. I use the ability to hide columns, resize columns, wrap text, and (gasp!) even fill rows with grey to indicate I am done.

I keep saving the file as comma delimited and I put up with Excel's incessant freak out about "losing features". This is not a one time thing. I need to save and commit this file many times before it is considered done.