Hello. In this case Org splits into columns everytime it sees a space, so
"baking soda" ends up in two columns. A brute force solution: replace the
spaces between words that shouldn't be put into separated columns with an
underscore:

1_cup all-purpose_flour

Convert it to an Org table and then do a quick M-x replace-string to
replace '_' with ' '.

2017-03-12 15:14 GMT+00:00 Xebar Saram <zeltakc@gmail.com>:

> Hi list
>
> so im trying to use orgmode to collect food recepies. i have one issue
> which is to convert text based ingridents list into org tables.
>
> for example take this list
>
> 3/4 cup milk
> 2 tablespoons white vinegar
> 1 cup all-purpose flour
> 2 tablespoons white sugar
> 1 teaspoon baking powder
> 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
> 1/2 teaspoon salt
> 1 egg
> 2 tablespoons butter, melted
> cooking spray
>
> if i mark this as a region and issue `org-table-create-or-convert-from-region`
> this is the result
>
> |     3/4 | cup         | milk        |         |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |       2 | tablespoons | white       | vinegar | (%or | better | yet |
> lemon | juice%) |
> |       1 | cup         | all-purpose | flour   |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |       2 | tablespoons | white       | sugar   |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |       1 | teaspoon    | baking      | powder  |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |     1/2 | teaspoon    | baking      | soda    |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |     1/2 | teaspoon    | salt        |         |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |       1 | egg         |             |         |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> |       2 | tablespoons | butter,     | melted  |      |        |     |
>     |         |
> | cooking | spray       |             |         |      |        |     |
>     |         |
>
>
> as you can see it got the amount (1/2) and the unit (cup) right yet the
> actual ingredients is cut into several columns
>
> i dont really know how to deal with this. is there a more intelligent way
> of auto directing the conversion to split it the correct way?
>
> if not any suggestions on how to convert it in a better way? perhaps a
> command to quick delete the separator (|) across all the column?
>
> thx alot in advance
>
> Z
>