Data which already exist in an external file can be imported into a workbook first by opening the file into a separate instance of Gnumeric and and then by copying the relevant data into the desired worksheet.
Data contained in external files in the formats of several other spreadsheet applications can be opened by Gnumeric. Gnumeric can open files in Applix (TM) format, GNU Oleo format, Lotus 123 (TM) format, Microsoft Excel (TM) format, Multiplan (TM) format, OpenOffice Calc or StarOffice Calc (TM) format, Plan Perfect (TM) format, Quattro Pro (TM) format, sc and XSpread format or in the Xbase format.
Data contained in external text files which are formatted in well defined ways can also be opened by Gnumeric. Gnumeric can open files formatted in Data Interchange Format, formatted as HTML tables, or formatted in text formats such as comma separated values or tab delimited records. The opening of text format files is configurable by the user so that text files which contain data formatted in a wide variety of schemes can be imported correctly into Gnumeric. Obtaining data from these files is explained in detail in the section titled Section 14.3 ― Opening Files.
Data which are opened into a separate instance of Gnumeric can be copied and pasted into the current worksheet with the copy and paste commands as explained in Section 5.7.2 ― Cut, Copy and Paste.