Terminal copy setting

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Level 1

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Terminal copy setting

I have a command-line program that generates some tab-delimited text output that I'd like to paste into an Excel worksheet. I'd like the tabs to define columns. I am using Excel 16.74 on Mac OS Ventura (v13.4.1). I run the program in Mac OS Terminal. I do this on 2 Macs (both running the same software versions), A 13" M1 MacBook Air and a Mac Studio. On one the Studio, the paste works as desired. On the Air, it works if I go to paste special and select Text instead of the default, HTML. It would be nice if I could do it on both Macs using cmd-V instead of having to use paste special and then select Text.

The Show Clipboard Contents in finder indicates that the clipboard has rich text on the Air (where pasting doesn't work as desired) and as text on the Studio (where it does work). I don't see any relevant settings in Terminal preferences. Any suggestions how to set the terminal to recognize copied text as simple text rather than rich text?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 3, 2023 7:35 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 3, 2023 11:39 AM in response to ef_in_md

There are only two ways to get a propery formatted CSV or TSV into Microsoft Excel 16.74 and neither involve the clipboard, right-clicking the CSV in Finder and choosing Open With, or piping the script output into Excel. Do either of the following:

Excel File menu : Import and select CSV, then click import and follow the remaining steps.
Excel Data menu : Get External Data : Import Text File : and follow the remaining interactive instructions.

Tested: macOS 13.4.1 and Excel 16.74.

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

91,579 points

Jul 3, 2023 7:42 AM in response to ef_in_md

Really not a Terminal User ( too much ) but maybe below could help ?

Change to Plain Text ?

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

50,890 points

Jul 3, 2023 9:56 AM in response to ef_in_md

I recommend you use the "pbcopy" command in the Terminal. Just run your command line tool as normal. But instead of letting the output display in the terminal, pipe it to pbcopy, like this:

/path/to/my/script --some_option1 --some_option-2 | pbcopy

This will copy the text of the output to the clipboard and should do it the same on both computers. From there, you can paste into Excel.

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Answer 4

ef_in_md Author

Level 1

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Jul 3, 2023 2:10 PM in response to etresoft

Thanks. I only need a few line of the output. I could cook up a script to show only the needed lines and then pbcopy would. However, it is weird that it works on one Mac and not the other (because of the format in the clipboard).

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Answer 5

ef_in_md Author

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Jul 3, 2023 2:20 PM in response to PRP_53

This solves my problem. I didn't see this option in the edit menu (because I didn't look). It does exactly what I need. I don't remember setting that option on the Mac Studio, but it could have happened a long time ago as I have migrated settings to it from a series of previous Macs. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 6

etresoft

Level 9

50,890 points

Jul 3, 2023 4:37 PM in response to ef_in_md

ef_in_md wrote:

Thanks. I only need a few line of the output. I could cook up a script to show only the needed lines and then pbcopy would. However, it is weird that it works on one Mac and not the other (because of the format in the clipboard).

Maybe check to see how your Terminal is configured. The default is xterm256-color. When I copy color text from Terminal and paste it into Excel, it works just as well as any other text. When I do the text to columns command, it removes all the formatting.

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