Converting Files in Excel
Although Excel can export text as RTF, it can not import text as RTF. In order to get Unicode characters inside of Excel, they have to be pasted as Unicode. Since GF Zemen Unicode is pasted into Excel through the Unicode clipboard format, text formatting is not necessarily preserved when converting Phonetic and Tfanus to Unicode. In order to convert .xls files, follow these steps:
Step 1, open the .xls file with Excel.
Step 2, press F6 (assuming UniGeez is running in 'ON' mode).
The following message box may appear:
(Since we are converting from one encoding to another, the new encoding may have more or less characters.)
Since the RTF format can be exported from Excel, the RTF format is used to map out what bytes in the Excel spreadsheet need to be converted and to what encoding they need to be converted. (Note: the export of RTF is not available when dealing with individual cells.) So, if your Excel file has a mix of GeezTypeNet, Times New Roman, and GeezTimesNew, both GeezTypeNet & GeezTimesNew will be converted to GF Zemen Unicode and the Times New Roman will not be converted. After a file has been converted and step 4 has not yet been performed, you can opt to not set the font for the entire document, but selectively set the font on only the cells in which text was converted. To do this, simply 'click' on the spreadsheet to remove the SELECT-ALL, then highlight the cells that were converted and set the new font only for those cells. This way, other fonts that are mixed in with the spreadsheet, such as Times New Roman, that were not converted can retain their appropriate font type.
Another option is to open the .xls file with Word. After converting the file in Word, do CTRL-A (select all), CTRL-C (copy), then you can paste the converted data into an Excel spreadsheet. This method should better preserve the formatting of individual cells when multiple fonts are used within the file.