Fixed Width text files are special cases of ASCII or UNICODE text files where the format is specified by column widths. Character Delimited (CSV) text files are special cases of ASCII or UNICODE text files where the fields are separated by the specified delimiter character.

Here is a typical Fixed Column Text file. Its first field is said to be 8 characters, 2nd field to be 6, third field to be 6, 4th field to be 7, 5th and 6th fields to be 8. It would look something like this:

145400.0   6.1   0.0  383.0   383.0  1713.0
146700.0   5.3   0.0  392.0   392.0  1695.0
147300.0   6.3   0.0  421.0   421.0  1693.0
148750.0   5.5   0.0  384.0   384.0  1699.0
149600.0   5.9   0.0  394.0   394.0  1830.0
150750.0   7.1   0.0  381.0   381.0  1791.0
151800.0  10.0   0.0  401.0   401.0  1796.0
153050.0  13.6   0.0  531.0   531.0  2344.0
154200.0   2.4  19.1  445.0  1108.0  2368.0
155100.0   3.5  26.1  497.0  1285.0  2486.0

1. Select menu item <Format> : <Fixed Column to Character Delimited>

2. Specifies the separator character between fields. If this is a TAB character "^t" should be entered. In all other cases, a single character should be entered. The editor uses this character to determine the field boundaries.

3. Specifies the field widths(columns) in the above dialog. field widths are separated by commas ','.

This is a list of comma separated field widths used for the conversion. If there are more fields than entries, the last entry will be used as the field width for the remaining fields. This allows the user to set a single entry if all fields are required to be the same width.

4. Click on button "Convert" to perform the conversion from fixed column to character delimited (CSV) text.

145400.0,6.1,0.0,383.0,383.0,1713.0 146700.0,5.3,0.0,392.0,392.0,1695.0 147300.0,6.3,0.0,421.0,421.0,1693.0 148750.0,5.5,0.0,384.0,384.0,1699.0 149600.0,5.9,0.0,394.0,394.0,1830.0 150750.0,7.1,0.0,381.0,381.0,1791.0 151800.0,10.0,0.0,401.0,401.0,1796.0 153050.0,13.6,0.0,531.0,531.0,2344.0 154200.0,2.4,19.1,445.0,1108.0,2368.0 155100.0,3.5,26.1,497.0,1285.0,2486.0