1. Select Get External Data from the Data menu on the toolbar. Then click Import Data on the menu. Browse to the correct folder and select the required file.

2. Follow the instructions on the Text Import Wizard. In this example, the file is a Fixed width text file. Step 2 indicates the points at which the data is being divided. Ensure Fixed width is selected and click the Next button.

3. In this example, it is important to remove the break splitting the hour. When imported, the data will be correctly identified as hours AM or PM. Note that the important data are the numeric data. You may need to scroll down to see this data. Check that the data will be divided according to columns of numeric data: text strings such as the title will be split. The position of the break may be adjusted by double clicking on the line to delete it, click and dragging it to a new position or a single click to add a new break.

4. It is possible to define the type of data in each column but usually there is no need to do this unless the imported data are dates. Clicking the Finish button provides the last prompt screen. Click OK to import the data into the existing worksheet.

5. The data is imported into the worksheet. Note the hours have been correctly identified as AM and PM and the column breaks have occurred in the correct place.