Hi,

I remember, somehow, in Microsoft Excel, if I pasted something like a list:
I could tell Excel to split my data by the hyphen, and it would place 1a 2a and 3a all in column A, and place 1b 2b and 3b all in column B .......

but I can't figure out how to do this in openoffice, can anyone help me out?

Thanks!
George

I just got this from the OOo online help. Start with step two since you already have a text file.

If you want to exchange data with a database that does not have an ODBC link and does not allow dBase import and export, you can use a common text format.
Importing Data Into OpenOffice.org
To exchange data in a text format use the OpenOffice.org Calc import/export filter.
1.Export the desired data from the source database in a text format. The CSV text format is recommended. This format separates data fields by using delimiters such as commas or semi-colons, and separates records by inserting line breaks.
2.Choose File - Open and select "Text CSV" from the File type combo box. Select the file and click Open.
3.The Text Import dialog appears. Decide which data to include from the text document.
Once the data is in a OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheet, you can edit it as needed. Save the data as a OpenOffice.org data source:
Save the current OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheet in dBase format in the folder of a dBase database. To do this, choose File - Save As, then select the File type "dBase" and the folder of the dBase database.
Exporting in CSV Text Format
You can export the current OpenOffice.org spreadsheet in a text format which can be read by many other applications.
1.Choose File - Save as.
2.In File type select the filter "Text CSV". Enter a file name and click Save.
3.This opens the Export of text files dialog, in which you can select the character set, field delimiter and text delimiter. Click OK. A warning informs you that only the active sheet was saved.

You can copy the dataset and insert it with 'Paste Special' -> 'Unformated text'. In the next dialog you'll be asked which separator to use.