user40713: I need to be able to import incoming data from a motion sensor and then from the serial monitor (where the data is) import the data to an excel document or file.
Any suggestions would help, 
Thanks.

user27653: The Arduino IDE's serial monitor is just one of many tools that can open a serial port and collect information from it.
The first step is to make sure the data you are writing to the Serial object in the Arduino is in a format suitable for importing into Excel. Separate multiple values on one line with a comma "," or tab "\t" character.
If you are running windows, you can often just use the built-in type command from a command prompt to write the serial port to a file:
type COM4 >> log.txt

(Assuming the Arduino is on COM4 and you want to write the data to a file called log.txt.)
If you're on a Mac, open the Terminal app and type:
screen -L /dev/tty.usbmodem1441335 9600

(Assuming your Arduino is on serial port named tty.usbmodem1441335 and your port speed is 9600 bps.) The session will be written to a file called screenlog.0.
Then you can open the text/log file in Excel. If you rename it to end in .csv, that may also help Excel recognize it as tabular data.

40713: <p>I need to be able to import incoming data from a motion sensor and then from the serial monitor (where the data is) import the data to an excel document or file.</p>

<p>Any suggestions would help, </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>
 27653: <p>The Arduino IDE's serial monitor is just one of many tools that can open a serial port and collect information from it.</p>

<p>The first step is to make sure the data you are writing to the <code>Serial</code> object in the Arduino is in a format suitable for importing into Excel. Separate multiple values on one line with a comma <code>","</code> or tab <code>"\t"</code> character.</p>

<p>If you are running windows, you can often just use the built-in <code>type</code> command from a command prompt to write the serial port to a file:</p>

<pre><code>type COM4 &gt;&gt; log.txt
</code></pre>

<p>(Assuming the Arduino is on COM4 and you want to write the data to a file called <code>log.txt</code>.)</p>

<p>If you're on a Mac, open the Terminal app and type:</p>

<pre><code>screen -L /dev/tty.usbmodem1441335 9600
</code></pre>

<p>(Assuming your Arduino is on serial port named <code>tty.usbmodem1441335</code> and your port speed is 9600 bps.) The session will be written to a file called <code>screenlog.0</code>.</p>

<p>Then you can open the text/log file in Excel. If you rename it to end in <code>.csv</code>, that may also help Excel recognize it as tabular data.</p>
