LaTeX tables - from spreadsheets to tex

Writing tables in LaTeX is a pain in the ass.
Create a table as draft, find an error, move a column etc. AAarrrrgh.

A nice way to create the basic table and fill it with data is to use a spreadsheet application like MS Excel.

I found some promising tools to convert from spreadsheet applications to latex:

• OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice
  • calc2latex
    A macro. Generates tex code from selected table area.
    Tested. Works with LibreOffice 3.4.4 (debian package '1:3.4.4-2').
• MS Excel
• exceltex
  Directly include .xls files in latex documents.
  Untested.
• excel2latex
  macro for Excel. Export to latex code.
  Untested.

pdfTeX - get rid of pdf inclusion version warnings

When you include pdf-images in your LaTeX document and get this kind of warnings:

pdfTeX warning: pdflatex (file ./fig/fig_FooBar.pdf): PDF inclusion: found PDF version <1.5>, but at most version <1.4> allowed [...]

Then give pdfTeX this command:

\pdfminorversion=5

This way pdfTeX builds the document with pdf Version 1.5 instead of 1.4.
Before:

> file document.pdf
document.pdf: PDF document, version 1.4

After:

> file document.pdf
document.pdf: PDF document, version 1.5

and no more warnings.

Thanks to Mads Darø, found the solution in his blog:
Kedelig Data: Controlling PDF Minor Version in LaTeX


Just for reference:
> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
Debian package version: texlive 2009-14