2DA format

Files with  extensions are two-dimensional arrays, or tables, or spreadsheets.

The Witcher did not introduce any change here — they are in the exact same format as they were in NWN or KotOR. This means that you can use any one of the tools already available.

The  files are plain text, and the columns are delimited by whitespace characters (e.g. Space and Tab) — with small   tables a simple text editor will do. For larger tables however, I recommend some more serious tool — for example, Excel.

The Excel method
A piece of advice to Excel users: pay attention for the delimiter characters when you import the  file into Excel the first time. Excel will detect either Space or Tab as a delimiter, but never both — so you will need to add the other as a delimiter to the import settings; while there, be sure to check the "treat consecutive delimiters as one" option, too. When you have saved your  file the first time, remember that the character in the header (2DA v2.0) must be a Space! If it is a Tab, use Notepad or something to change that back to a space! After you have done this import/save hassle once, you do not need to do this ever again (well, not for the file you have updated, anyway).

A simpler Excel method
Simply do not save any Excel-specific formatting, use "Save as..." and leave things as Excel "sees" them, i.e. if it thinks it was a text file, then fine... whatever. When the pop-up asking you if you are sure you want to discard any Excel formatting is presented, just do not keep any. You will be asked again when closing the file, just do not and it works just fine.