This is quite sweet. You need to get some table data straight out to a CSV for manipulating in OpenOffice Calc, or similar products. But how?

Connect to your SQL server using a command line, ususally

mysql -u root -p

enter your password. Show your databases using

SHOW DATABASES;

Switch to your database using

USE my_database_name;

Now show your tables if you like..

SHOW TABLES;

Now get your CSV out from the table results of a query thus..

SELECT Name, Surname, Address, Postcode, Telephone
FROM Customers
INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/customers.csv'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';

Et voila, data dumped to /tmp/customers.csv! Nice.

Perhaps my favourite XKCD cartoon from xkcd.com

OK, funny / cool but how do I get .CSV file to my PC?

Understood.  I use Linux Mint, but in any Debian, Ubuntu, Mint system, open your file manager (or Thunar in Mint-speak) and put

sftp://your_username@your.server.name.com/tmp/

Enter any password required for the target server and voilà, you’re on the /tmp directory on the target server!  From there, you can copy / paste the file as you wish,