Convert SXW to TSV

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SXW vs TSV Format Comparison

Aspect	SXW (Source Format)	TSV (Target Format)
Format Overview	SXW StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer Document SXW is a legacy document format used by StarOffice and early versions of OpenOffice.org Writer. It is a ZIP archive containing XML files (content.xml, styles.xml, meta.xml) that define the document structure, formatting, and metadata. SXW was the predecessor to the modern ODT format and is still readable by LibreOffice, OpenOffice, and Pandoc. Legacy Document ZIP/XML Archive	TSV Tab-Separated Values TSV is a plain text format for storing tabular data where columns are separated by tab characters and rows by newlines. It is simpler than CSV because tabs rarely appear in data, reducing the need for quoting and escaping. TSV is widely used for data exchange between spreadsheets, databases, and scientific tools. Tabular Data Plain Text
Technical Specifications	Structure: ZIP archive containing XML files Creator: StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer Content Files: content.xml, styles.xml, meta.xml MIME Type: application/vnd.sun.xml.writer Extension: .sxw	Structure: Tab-delimited columns, newline-separated rows Encoding: UTF-8 or ASCII Delimiter: Tab character (\t, U+0009) MIME Type: text/tab-separated-values Extension: .tsv
Syntax Examples	SXW contains XML content within a ZIP archive: <!-- content.xml inside .sxw --> <office:body> <text:p text:style-name="Heading1"> Employee List </text:p> <table:table> <table:table-row> <table:table-cell>Name</table:table-cell> <table:table-cell>Role</table:table-cell> </table:table-row> </table:table> </office:body>	TSV uses tabs to separate column values: Name Role Department Alice Developer Engineering Bob Designer Creative Carol Manager Operations
Content Support	Formatted text with styles and fonts Tables, lists, and nested structures Embedded images and objects Headers, footers, and page numbering Footnotes and endnotes Document metadata (author, title, date) Table of contents and indexes	Rows and columns of text data Header row for column names Numeric and text values No formatting or styling No nested structures No metadata support Simple, flat data structure
Advantages	Open XML-based document format Compressed ZIP archive for smaller file sizes Supports complex document structures Metadata preserved in separate XML files Still readable by modern office suites Predecessor to the standardized ODF format	No quoting issues (tabs rarely in data) Easy to parse programmatically Directly pasteable into spreadsheets Universal data exchange format Tiny file size Human-readable with aligned columns
Disadvantages	Legacy format superseded by ODT Limited support in newer applications Not an international standard like ODF Complex internal XML structure Fewer editing tools available compared to ODT	No formatting or styling support Cannot represent hierarchical data No data type information Tab characters in data cause issues No standard for escaping special characters
Common Uses	Legacy StarOffice and OpenOffice documents Archived office documents from early 2000s Government and institutional legacy files Migration projects to modern formats Historical document preservation	Spreadsheet data import/export Database data transfer Scientific data analysis Bioinformatics and genomics data Clipboard data interchange
Best For	Opening legacy StarOffice/OpenOffice files Accessing archived document content Migrating older documents to modern formats Working with pre-ODF office documents	Data exchange between applications Importing data into spreadsheets Simple tabular data storage Copy-paste data workflows
Version History	Introduced: 2002 with StarOffice 6.0 / OpenOffice.org 1.0 Based On: XML-based office document format Superseded By: ODT (ODF 1.0, 2005) Status: Legacy format, still readable	Origin: Early computing (tab-delimited files) IANA Registration: text/tab-separated-values Standardization: Informal convention, widely adopted Status: Universal, stable format
Software Support	LibreOffice: Full read/write support OpenOffice: Native format support Pandoc: Reads SXW as ODT variant Calligra Suite: Import support	Excel: Open and import TSV files Google Sheets: Import tab-delimited data Python: csv module with tab delimiter R: read.delim() function

Why Convert SXW to TSV?

Converting SXW to TSV extracts tabular and structured content from legacy StarOffice Writer documents into a simple, universally compatible tab-separated format. This is ideal for importing document data into spreadsheets, databases, or data analysis tools that work with delimited text files.

TSV is often preferred over CSV for data exchange because tab characters rarely appear in text content, eliminating the need for quoting and escaping that CSV requires. When converting document content from SXW files, TSV provides a cleaner output that is less likely to have parsing issues with commas in text.

The conversion is particularly useful when SXW documents contain tables, lists, or structured data that needs to be imported into a spreadsheet or database. The converter extracts table rows and cells, preserving the tabular structure in the TSV output, making it ready for immediate import into Excel, Google Sheets, or a database system.

Our converter opens the SXW ZIP archive, identifies tables and structured content in the XML, and generates properly formatted TSV output with tab-separated columns and newline-separated rows. The output is encoded in UTF-8 for universal compatibility.

Key Benefits of Converting SXW to TSV:

Spreadsheet Ready: TSV files open directly in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice Calc
Clean Parsing: Tab delimiters avoid the quoting issues common with CSV files
Database Import: TSV is accepted by most database import tools
Data Analysis: Compatible with Python, R, and other data analysis tools
Universal Format: Plain text that works on every platform
Clipboard Friendly: TSV data can be pasted directly from spreadsheets

Practical Examples

Example 1: Table Data Extraction

An analyst discovers financial reports in SXW format from a legacy StarOffice system. Converting to TSV extracts the tables containing revenue figures, budgets, and expense data into tab-delimited files that can be opened in Excel for charting and analysis without any manual data entry.

Example 2: Database Migration

A university database administrator needs to import student records from archived SXW documents into a modern PostgreSQL database. Converting to TSV produces clean, tab-delimited data that can be loaded using PostgreSQL's COPY command, efficiently populating database tables from legacy documents.

Example 3: Scientific Data Processing

A research lab has experimental results documented in SXW files. Converting to TSV produces tab-separated data files that can be directly loaded into R or Python pandas DataFrames for statistical analysis, visualization, and further processing in scientific workflows.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What is the difference between TSV and CSV?

A: Both TSV and CSV are tabular data formats. TSV uses tab characters as column separators, while CSV uses commas. TSV is often preferred because tabs rarely appear in text data, so values rarely need quoting or escaping. CSV is more widely standardized (RFC 4180) but requires careful handling of commas in text fields.

Q: Can I open TSV files in Excel?

A: Yes. Microsoft Excel can open TSV files directly. When you open a .tsv file, Excel automatically recognizes tab characters as column separators and displays the data in a spreadsheet grid. You can also use the Text Import Wizard for more control over the import settings.

Q: How are SXW tables converted to TSV?

A: Tables in SXW documents are parsed from the XML structure, and each table row becomes a line in the TSV output. Cell values within each row are separated by tab characters. The first row can serve as a header row containing column names.

Q: What happens to non-tabular content in SXW?

A: Non-tabular content such as paragraphs and headings is included in the TSV as single-column rows. The converter preserves all text content from the document, with tabular data properly split into columns and other text appearing in the first column.

Q: Are images from SXW preserved in TSV?

A: No. TSV is a plain text format that cannot contain images. All embedded images and objects from the SXW document are excluded from the TSV output. Only textual and tabular content is included.

Q: Can I import TSV into a database?

A: Yes. Most database systems support importing tab-delimited files. MySQL uses LOAD DATA INFILE with tab delimiter, PostgreSQL uses COPY with delimiter specification, and SQLite has the .import command. TSV is one of the most common data import formats for databases.

Q: How does the converter handle merged cells in SXW tables?

A: Merged cells in SXW tables are expanded in the TSV output. The content of a merged cell appears in the first cell position, and empty values fill the remaining positions to maintain proper column alignment in the tab-delimited output.

Q: What encoding is used for the TSV output?

A: The TSV output uses UTF-8 encoding, which supports all Unicode characters. This ensures that special characters, accented letters, and non-Latin scripts from the original SXW document are accurately represented in the tab-separated output.