file="###John### someData1 someData2 SomeData3 ###Mike### someData1 someData2 ###Ford### someData1 someData2 SomeData3 someData4 someData5 SomeData6 " awk '/^#/{gsub(/#/,"");printf "%s",NR!=1?"\n"$0:$0;next}{print "\t"$0}' <<< "$file"