Pondwater, my backend framework, accepts a pipe( | ) delimited file.  Often, clients will send me Excel files.  Below are the instructions to save an Excel document as a text file:

Microsoft Excel

Click "Start," then select "Settings," then "Control Panel." Click on "Regional and Language Options."

Click on the button labeled "Customize" and highlight the data in the field labeled "List Separator." Type the pipe delimiter "|" in the field replacing the previous list separator.

Click "OK" on the window titled "Customize Regional Options." Click "OK" on the window titled "Regional and Language Options."

Open Excel and create the content you wish to save in the pipe-delimited format.

Click on "File" on the Excel menu bar then select the option "Save As."

Input the name for the file in the text field labeled "File name" and select the value "CSV (Comma delimited)(*.csv)."

Click on the button labeled "Save" to save the file to your computer as a pipe-delimited format.