> And it was most frustrating when they had like 100 columns or so. Having to change column 63 at line 58 is not something you do easily in Notepad++. Import to Excel was my way to go, but since the file was not a standard CSV file (e.g. also had sections like an .INI file) it was time consuming: first just select a subsection from the file, save to a different file, import to Excel, modify, paste back, etc.
Suggestion: have you considered learning to use Vim? I imagine most Vim users are reading your example wondering what the big deal is.
Not to take away from the spirit of your post, though. You have valid questions.
As a longtime vim user, I don't see how vim makes going to the Nth logical column (for several values of N in different rows) in a large "CSV-like" file much easier.
Navigating in general is easier, sure, but... do you have a trick to share perhaps?