Most people don’t know this but TBL files are fairly common. You may have used or at least seen a .tbl file before. They are basically Table files used by StarCraft, a real-time strategy game, and usually hold generic table files
What are TBL files?
TBL is an abbreviation of a table, with this information, we can say that it deals with tables and numbers. However, it is not as common as a database.
The .tbl files have an edge over database files when it comes to flexibility. Because of this, if you are working with small sets of data then choosing this over the database file types can be a good option. However, they are not very common and most of the apps do not support them.
If you are a gamer, then you may have heard of the term “mods”. These are made to crack games, add features, or unlock new levels without actually playing the game. These mods are nothing but a .tbl file.
TBL files can be created with the help of Microsoft Excel. You just need to create a table and save the file with the .csv extension. After saving the file, go to its location, right-click on it, select Rename, and then change the extension to .tbl.
Read: What is HAR file? How to Generate or Open HAR Files?
How to open .tbl files in Windows 10
There are many ways to open .tbl files on your computer but in this section, we are going to open them with Excel.
Since TBL means table, we can use Excel to open the file. It is not very simple but can get the job done.
To do that, launch Microsoft Excel and open the TBL file from its location. One thing you need to make sure that you have selected All Files (*.*) before searching for the files.
Now, you will be redirected to Text Import Wizard. It has a three-step configuration, you need to be accurate in all of them.
Convert TBL file to Excel
In the first step, select Delimited under the “Choose the file type that best describes your data”. Leave everything else to the default setting and click Next.
In the second step, select the delimited separators that were used while creating the file. Most of the time, it is a comma, but you should check the Data preview to confirm that. Make sure that you have ticked Treat consecutive delimiters as one and click Next.
Finally, select General from the Column data format section and click Finish to open the TBL file.
Another way to view .tbl files is by opening them with Google Chrome.
Just right-click on the file > Open with > Chrome > OK. However, you can not make any changes to the file in this scenario.
These are not the only ways to open a .tbl file. There are some paid apps that allow you to open .tbl files such as Autodesk 3D and Adobe InDesign that you can buy.
Read next: What is an ASD file and how to open it in Microsoft Word.
