mbExcelExport2csv

This simple command line tool can be used to take an .xls file (that is actually formatted in xml), and output it as a csv. The main use case in mind here is to convert excel files downloaded from ManageBac and upload them to Google Sheets, without having to open Excel.

This tool provides the exact same output if the xls file was opened in Excel, copied, and then pasted into Google Sheets, but without requiring Excel.

Getting Started

Requires Python 3.6.1 or above. Install Python 3 at python.org. Installing Python also installs a package manager (called pip) that can install the command mbExcelExport2csv into your command line environment.

pip3 install mbExcelExport2csv

Then, open the mini app using this command:

mbExcelExport2csv gui

For those who want the command line, use:

mbExcelExport2csv cmd

See "Command Line" below for more info

Upgrade

Should you need to update to the latest version, you can do:

pip install --upgrade mbExcelExport2csv

Command Line

After pip install worked, it is now installed on your path, and the command mbExcelExport2csv is now available:

mbExcelExport2csv cmd ~/path/to/xml.xls ~/path/to/output.csv

You can then import the csv file into Google Sheets. The delimiter used is a comma.

Alternatively, on Mac, you can skip the step of saving the csv file, and just run the following fancy command line, and it'll be on your clipboard.

mbExcelExport2csv cmd ~/path/to/xml.xls - | pbcopy

Just paste into "A1" cell of your Google Sheet, Data -> Split Text into Columns.