Need help using Excel with Filemaker Pro

[Daneel]

Hi everyone,

I just found these forums while searching for help with a problem I have here at my job doing data entry. I'm using Filemaker Pro 4.1 on a Mac.

Anyway, here's the problem I'm trying to deal with... if I have a number of word files and I need to convert them into Filemaker Pro entries in a database I figure going through Excel is the best way of doing it. So what I'm trying to do right now is figure out how to convert a large number of word files (unformatted) into an Excel spreadsheet where each row represents a different file. Once it gets into that state I can import it into Filemaker Pro without a problem.

The word files contain information in the following general format:

Catalog #: xxxxxxxx

Description: xxxxxxxx
Price: xxxxxx
Applications: xxxxxx
...and so on. Question is, how do I quickly convert that into a row in an excel spreadsheet? Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best,
Dan

 

[Legacy 98055]

Hi Dan
Welcome to Mr Excel.
I have very little experience working with Word files. Are all of these documents setup the same? If so, email one or two examples. Also, what format are you looking to end up with? A comma delimited text file? Tab delimited? Is this what you are looking to produce below?

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
1
2		Catalog#:	Description:	Price:	Applications:	Soon:
3		XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX
4		XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX
5		XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX
6		XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX	XXXXX
7
Sheet1

Tom
tstom@hotmail.com

 

[Daneel]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I just called the vendor and he says that he'll send the catalog in Excel format (hm, maybe should have asked that right away? LOL) so I guess in a way this is a moot point... but it's an interesting question for me.

That table above is exactly how I'd like it to look in Excel. I can't e-mail as the material is confidential (pricing info, etc.) but the main difficulty I've encountered thus far is that I can't put a Word document in Excel, and RTF documents become all garbled because the code becomes evident instead of the formatting in the fixed width column-choice window.

I'd rather not have to bother with making each file into a tab-delimited file because the whole point is to figure out how to turn many files into an excel spreadsheet at once.

Does that make any sense? Thanks again.

Dan

 

[Daneel]

Turns out the marketing manager sent us the wrong file, it was actually an updates sheet and not the full product information. So it looks like I could use the answer to his after all...

Do you guys think it might just be necessary to write a program which will make the text file tab-delimited so it can be more easily imported into an Excel spreadsheet? Thanks

Dan

 

[Legacy 98055]

Hi Dan.
My point about the comma delimited file was a bit unclear. If your database can read a comma delimited, fixed width, or binary files, then it would be redundant to import your individual documents into Excel just to export to your database. Unless, you had other manipulations or viewing goals in mind. Rich text can be cleaned up rather quickly assuming there is an easily discernable "pattern" of data in all of these documents. You may want to try this link for a more "Word" specific forum.
http://www.piersontech.com/oe/forum/index.php?s=

Tom