Hello!
I need to convert an xls file to text file, from console (cli) because I'm trying to automate a process.
Well, I've taken a look to xls2csv and ssconvert, this lastone comes with gnumeric.
Really ssconvert fits my needs because it is able to keep the original format of each spreadsheet cell.

My problem is:

I need to use the text exporter which is configurable as man page said. But I can't find documentation on how to configure the exporter parameters. By gnumeric GUI I know they are parameters like: end of line, separator, quote, format (auto, preserve). I tried using gui and it was able to export to txt in the format I want. So I like to do the same from cli with ssconvert...

I tried ssconvert as follows:

ssconvert -E Gnumeric_stf:stf_assistant myFile.xls myFile.txt

But I need to change some parameters, at least separator and format.

Does anybody knows where how to pass those parameters or where to find info?

Thanks in advance,
Matías

Well, after sending an e-mail to gnumeric mail list I got the answer:

ssconvert -O 'eol=unix separator=; format=preserve charset=UTF-8 locale=es_AR transliterate-mode=transliterate quoting-mode=never' spreadsheet.xls myText.txt

This options worked for my needs.
Fortunatly Gnumeric developers will complete the man page soon.