Changing Gnumeric text import export default settings

Question

I am using the Gnumeric spreadsheet to import, update, then export csv files delimited by the pipe "|" separator. Gnumeric by default saves it's files as xml via its .gnumeric file extension. Therefore a user needs to import files via Data > Get External Data > Import Text file. Then the user must navigate the wizard to select import options. These default settings are not "remembered" the next time a user imports a file. The process is supposed to be similar for exporting (via Save As > Text (Configurable), but I did not see the export wizard.

Is there a way to change Gnumeric's DEFAULT settings so it will import/export .csv files with the pipe separator and treat all data as text (not general)?

Answer 1

There is no way to do that at the moment. The easiest way to implement this feature might be a new plugin.

Answer 2

I solved that problem writing a wrapper-script gnumeric.sh that converted - in my case - semicolons to commas (and before that commas to ::), wrote that to a temporary file and opened that file with gnumeric (the csv came from server-genearted data saved/opened from a browser)

Turns out I still ran into the same or a similar trap, because gnumeric autodetects date formats wrong… something that would be configurable, but not from the command line.