data are in spreadsheet format with variables (columns) delimited by commas or tabs (spaces do not work as delimiters) and cases (rows) delimited by carriage returns

the data are numeric only -- columns of text will be interpreted as zero values; dates such as '12/23/2014' will be interpreted as the month only (e.g. 12)

the input file may contain many variables but you must select a maximum of 40.

After you specify the input file, the program attempts to figure out the correct delimiters and shows the first 10 or 11 rows of data.   You can specify a row that contains channel labels, and which row to start reading data from (to avoid text headers, etc.).   If the spreadsheet doesn't contain variable names, you can add them later -- but it is vital to keep track of which columns correspond to particular variables!   You can also select which variables to read and which to ignore (if some contain unnecessary data).
     Once you have made your selections, click the ‘Setup OK: load file’ button. The program provides a counter of the number of cases read.   You can stop loading the file by clicking the ‘abort input’ button.

The text file import window looks like this:

This example contains 21 variables (only 20 of which are used; the first is blank and is ignored).   Data input will begin at line 2, line 1 will be used as variable names, and the user has specified a sample interval of 5 seconds (the latter can be changed later in the 'Edit File Data' option in the EDIT menu ).

Since many text files don’t contain most of the file information embedded within a Warthog or Sable-format file, you’ll need to enter appropriate variable names, start times, mass, etc.