convert xls to xlsx with automator and shell

Question

ChangeAgent Author

Level 2

301 points

convert xls to xlsx with automator and shell

I am trying to create a converter for Excel.

I have in Automator:

for f in "$@"

do textutil -convert xlxs "$@"

echo "$f"

done

what am I doing wrong?

MBP, MM, MBP - 10.6 + Windooz XP on a hard partition

Posted on Sep 22, 2012 8:56 AM

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Answer 1

ChangeAgent Author

Level 2

301 points

Sep 24, 2012 2:23 AM in response to ChangeAgent

Solved it. Open Automator, select "Application", enter "Excel' in the name search box, then drag the "Convert Format of Excel Files" action to the right-hand pane (Excel Workbook - .xlsx - is the default format). Save the application to a convenient place.

Thnaks for your time.

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Answer 2

mns579

Level 4

1,170 points

Sep 22, 2012 2:22 PM in response to ChangeAgent

I think you mean "xlsx" rather than "xlxs". But textutil is for text. The man page says the following are acceptable formats for textutil:

txt, html, rtf, rtfd, doc, docx, wordml, odt, or webarchive

So textutil's not going to work for a spreadsheet. Perhaps others can suggest a different approach for your conversion task.

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