1. In Step 2 of the Text Import Wizard, do one of the following:
   • For delimited columns, click the character the file uses to separate the columns under Delimiters.
   • For fixed-width columns, set break lines to indicate the divisions between the columns.
2. Click Finish. In the Import Data dialog box, make sure Existing worksheet is selected and the box contains =$A$1, and then click OK. You'll see the following message:

   

3. Click OK to import the first 256 columns into Excel.
4. Click the Sheet2 tab, and repeat the steps to import the same text file, running the Text Import Wizard and completing the first two steps of the wizard through step 1 above. After you complete Step 2 of the Text Import Wizard, click Next to move to Step 3 of the wizard.
5. In the Data preview area, select the first 256 columns. To do this, click the first column, scroll to the right until the last column that you imported into Sheet1 is displayed, hold down the SHIFT key, and click that column.
6. Under Column data format, click Do not import column (skip), and then click Finish to import the rest of the data into Sheet2.
7. If your text file has more columns than will fit on two worksheets, you can repeat the process of skipping columns to import the next group of columns onto Sheet3, and so forth, until you've imported all of the data.

Note   You can access the Text Import Wizard any time you need to by pointing to Get External Data on the Data menu, clicking Import Text File, and, in the Import Text File dialog box, locating your file and then clicking Import.

Refreshing the data when your text file changes

After you complete importing the data and saving your workbook, Excel will remember the steps you followed and all of your import settings, including which columns go on which worksheet and which columns you skipped. When you get an updated text file, follow the steps below to import the new data:

1. In the Excel workbook, click a cell in the range of imported data. The External Data toolbar appears.
2. On the External Data toolbar, click the Refresh Data button.
3. In the Import Text File dialog box, locate the updated version of the text file, and then click Import.

More information

For more information about importing text files, type importing text in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Excel Help window, and then click Search.

For more information about working with external data ranges, type formatting external data ranges in the Office Assistant or on the Answer Wizard tab in the Excel Help window, and then click Search.