How to Automatically Convert an Excel File to Text Using Visual Basic. Microsoft's ubiquitous spreadsheet application, Excel, is a useful tool for small and large businesses alike.

Click File Click Options Click Customize Ribbon Under the list of Main Tabs, select Developer Click OK The Developer tab will now appear on the Ribbon and from it you can open the Visual Basic Editor.

The basic file-handling commands had not changed; just a few more features had been added. With Visual Basic .NET, Microsoft introduced a new, object-oriented method for working with files.

Launch Visual Basic 6 or Visual Basic Express. Open the project file in which you want to create a module and command button that creates an Excel spreadsheet from selected data.