Saving and opening files in other file formats

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Saving and opening files in other file formats

This section provides information on saving and opening documents in another file format.

Saving a document in another file format

To save the current document in another file format, choose the ribbon command File | Save as and open the dropdown list Save as type. Select the desired format, enter a different file name if required and confirm saving.

Opening a document in another file format

To open a document in another file format, use the ribbon command File | Open (click directly on the icon itself) to open the file dialog box, open the dropdown list of file types and select the format in which the file is available. Then select the desired file, and confirm that you want to open it.

Supported file formats

In the dialog boxes for opening and saving documents, the list of file types includes the following file formats:

PlanMaker document

The in-house format for PlanMaker documents in which you usually save documents (name extension: .pmdx).

PlanMaker template

Document template for PlanMaker documents (name extension: .pmvx). For more information, see Document templates.

Microsoft Excel document

You can also open and save documents in Microsoft Excel file format. The program supports .xls files (Excel 5.0 to 2003) as well as .xlsx files (Excel 2007 or later).
For more information on working with Excel files, see Notes on the Excel format.

Microsoft Excel template

Document template for Microsoft Excel documents.

PlanMaker 2012 document

Documents are saved in the file format of PlanMaker 2012, an older version of PlanMaker (name extension: .pmd).

TextMaker document (save only)

This option saves the document in a file format that can be read by SoftMaker's word processor TextMaker.

HTML (save only)

Documents are saved in HTML format. For more information, see Notes on the HTML format.

dBASE

dBASE database file format with either a DOS, Windows or Unicode character set. Before opening/saving the database, the program displays a dialog box in which you can select the character set.
Note: Most dBASE databases are stored in dBASE/DOS file format – not in dBASE/Windows file format. Even Windows database programs usually use the DOS format.
Tip: In the preview window of the dialog box, you can click on the column header to specify the data type for each column – that is, the format with which the cells of the column are to be displayed in PlanMaker.

SQLite database (not included in SoftMaker FreeOffice)

The SQLite format is a fast, flexible and widely used SQL database that you can access locally (i.e. without the usual database server). Several tables can also be created in a SQLite database.

Text file/CSV file

This is a plain text file format, for example, with the cell values separated by tabs or commas. For more information, see Notes on the text format.

Text file/CSV file with additional settings

As above, but before the file is saved, the program opens an additional dialog box in which you can make advanced settings with respect to the file format (for example, specify separators). For more information, see Notes on the text format.
Note: When opening a text file, the advanced settings always appear automatically.