Extract-MTW Command — Minitab File Extraction Made Simple

The extract-mtw command allows Indexly to directly read, extract, and process Minitab MTW files.
With it, you can access embedded worksheet data, decode textual content, and optionally extract extended metadata from the internal WorksheetInfo section — all while maintaining clarity and structure.

This feature bridges the gap between data science tools and practical search/indexing pipelines, making .mtw files fully searchable, indexable, and analyzable.

Key Features

🧮 Native MTW support for .mtw (Minitab) project files
🧩 Automatic stream decoding — detects and decodes text streams from binary content
🗂 Independent WorksheetInfo extraction for extended metadata (--mtw-extended)
🧹 Intelligent cleaning removes noise (G, @, control characters, and unreadable symbols)
💾 CSV output for each worksheet and metadata file
-⚙️ Graceful fallback for unknown or binary-only streams
📑 Metadata storage integration with Indexly’s core database
🚀 Resource-aware mode — extended extraction only triggered when explicitly requested

Getting Started

Before you begin, make sure your Indexly installation is updated to version 1.0.3 or higher.
To view all options and parameters for this feature, run:

indexly extract-mtw --help

This displays all available flags, including the --mtw-extended option and output configuration parameters.

Basic Extraction

To extract all readable worksheets and streams from a Minitab file, simply run:

indexly extract-mtw path/to/datafile.mtw

After processing, Indexly automatically generates clean .csv and .txt outputs in the same directory.

Example output:

datafile_Worksheet.csv
datafile_Text.txt

Each worksheet or text stream within the .mtw file is extracted independently. Binary or non-decodable data is safely written as .bin files for later inspection.

Extended WorksheetInfo Extraction

Some .mtw files include a hidden section called WorksheetInfo — containing detailed metadata about how the worksheet was created, formatted, or analyzed. This data can be large and is not always necessary, so Indexly keeps it optional.

To enable it, simply pass the --mtw-extended flag:

indexly extract-mtw --mtw-extended path/to/statistics-report.mtw

You’ll then see additional output files such as:

statistics-report_WorksheetInfo.csv

Each extracted WorksheetInfo file is automatically cleaned of redundant G or @ characters, ensuring human-readable output while retaining all meaningful data.

Text Cleaning and Normalization

When the extractor encounters text under WorksheetInfo, Indexly applies a consistent cleaning process:

Removes stray G, @, and control symbols
Normalizes spacing and punctuation
Preserves readable sections like titles, timestamps, or data fields

This ensures that your resulting .csv files are lightweight, structured, and easy to inspect or analyze.

For example, a raw block like:

G,@,@ j Data from Iceland in figures 1 9 9 9 - 2 0 0 0

is automatically cleaned and saved as:

Data from Iceland in figures 1999 - 2000

Output Structure

After extraction, Indexly organizes all files in the same directory as the source .mtw. Depending on your flags and file content, you might see outputs such as:

Output Type	Example Filename	Description
Worksheet CSV	`analysis_Worksheet.csv`	Primary worksheet data
WorksheetInfo CSV	`analysis_WorksheetInfo.csv`	Extended metadata (optional)
Text file	`analysis_Text.txt`	Decoded text content
Binary file	`analysis_Stream.bin`	Raw binary stream (fallback)

All generated files are normalized paths to ensure cross-platform compatibility and consistency.

Performance & Resource Control

Extracting WorksheetInfo can be resource-intensive for large MTW archives. That’s why the extractor only processes these sections when --mtw-extended is used.

If omitted, Indexly will skip WorksheetInfo processing — improving speed while still extracting worksheet data and text streams.

Example: Full Workflow

Here’s a complete example combining extraction and metadata generation:

indexly extract-mtw --mtw-extended ./datasets/lab-results.mtw

Output:

lab-results_Worksheet.csv
lab-results_WorksheetInfo.csv
lab-results_Text.txt
📑 Independent worksheetinfo metadata saved for lab-results_WorksheetInfo.csv

Tips & Best Practices

Start without --mtw-extended if processing many files at once.
Use the flag only for deep data inspection or metadata analysis.
Review extracted CSVs with a spreadsheet editor or pandas for quick inspection.
Combine with Indexly’s analyze-csv to summarize and visualize extracted data.
When unsure about parameters, use:
```
indexly extract-mtw --help
```