Google-sheets – How to use “split text to columns” when pasting in Google Sheets

copy/pastecsvgoogle sheets

I have some CSV data in the clipboard that I'm trying to paste into a Google sheet (Chrome, Windows 7). There isn't really a direct paste option for CSV data (like the "Paste Unformatted Text" option in OpenOffice), but I noticed that sometimes a little clipboard icon appears and if you click it a menu with "split text to columns" comes up.

The problem I'm having is, I don't know how to activate this menu and do the actual paste:

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Once I click "split text to columns" a separator selector pops up, then… I don't know what the next step is. Selecting a separator just leaves the pop up on the screen, Ctrl+V doesn't do anything, clicking elsewhere closes it, and I'm not sure how to perform the actual action.

So, two questions:

  1. How do I actually perform this action?
  2. What is it that triggers that little clipboard thing to come up? I can't actually control it, it just sometimes appears on its own.

I'm not looking for other ways to import CSV data, there are other working solutions e.g. saving to a file then importing. I'm specifically wondering about this context menu action.

Best Answer

I took some test CSV data and pasted it into a Google Sheet. When I opened the clipboard and chose "split text to columns", my data was immediately split. There shouldn't be anything else you need to do.

Try with a smaller sub-set of the data.

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