extracting phone numbers-web info merging in excel

[kraze]

I was wondering if it was possible to extract contact info from website and merge to a excel sheet. Now I have researched and played around with it and I found I can go to excel/data/import external data/new web query and I can merge a messed up group of info into couple cells, after deleting trash lines I am left with 2 lines of info that is merged into single cell. Of course I researched and learned how to do a merge from excel to outlook saving file to txt and map custom fields. Unfortunatly It dont' seperate into different columns for example it may show like

mike houston-mylo real estate(1-A) 314-383-9776 ,(2-A
123 jackson street(1B) St. louis, Mo(2-B)

now the cells actually contain some more junk, like phone number is actually
<TABLE style="WIDTH: 368pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=491 border=0 x:str><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 368pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 17956" width=491><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ece9d8; BORDER-TOP: #ece9d8; BORDER-LEFT: #ece9d8; WIDTH: 368pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ece9d8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=491 height=17>(314) 567-2361 see reviews on Yahoo! Local

the address is
<TABLE style="WIDTH: 368pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=491 border=0 x:str><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 368pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 17956" width=491><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height=17><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ece9d8; BORDER-TOP: #ece9d8; BORDER-LEFT: #ece9d8; WIDTH: 368pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ece9d8; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=491 height=17 x:str="(314) 469-0060 Make a Reservation ">123 jackson street--- Make a Reservation </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


kinda like this. So my question is I in past was manually inputing all this into outlook by hand, definitly no time now, and its exhausting. I did try a software called egrabber and it did what I need but software is more than my budget so i have no choice but to be inconvenienced. So is there a way to be less inconvenienced? ideas? how can I strip the make a reservation from the number
or see reviews on yahoo local from the cell? what if the name is mixed in with the company address like
amy gail, comfort inn suites
or even if amy gail is in one cell? to merge sucessfully proper in outlook don't i have to have them seperated so it will merge in the correct field?

one last question, i have business cards, can I scan them and have them merged as well somehow?

Thanks

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[gnrboyd]

It sounds like you could use the text to columns function. You can find it under the Data menu bar. (Data - Text to Columns.) I am a little unclear of your exact data set and without seeing a broader example I can't really give you step by step instructions. It's possible that you might need to do it in phases and also incorporate some formulas to get the results you are looking for. If you search for "text to columns" I'm sure you will find plenty of helpful info.

It is always a good idea if you can supply a set of data that you are starting with as well as what you would like the finished product to look like. (Several lines so it is easier to see the type of data you are dealing with, variables, etc.)

You can certainly scan a business card and use it in Excel. Save your scanned image as a photo file (jpg, bmp, etc.) Go to the Insert menu bar and select Picture and then From File - Navigate to your photo on your PC and select it. You can drag it where you want it, resize, etc. When you click on the photo (in this case business card) a picture tool bar appears and you can use it for various operations related to the photo.