data base help

Jay H

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Posts
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Loc
KY
I was just working with an excel data base. I don't have excel but managed to open the file as a .txt. Does anybody know how to turn this .txt file back into some sort of database? The program I happen to be using is called "Openoffice" I think. But I was thinking that I should open just about any database file thats not Excel. However if I had all the answers I wouldn't be asking this. Help anybody? Thanks!
 
Jay,

Most (all) database or spreadsheet programs can import and parse a text file that is laid out as fixed or delimited rows. Specific instructions would have to be related to the program that you are using.

Pat :D
 
I know what your saying. When you look at the text fields you see the colums are sepearated by "tabs arrow" and row by "enter paragraph symbol" When I do just a straigt cut and paste it reconizes the "enter" and seperates them. If I can get it to do the same for the rows I'll be set. I'll keep looking
 
Jay,

If you import a text file with tabs between fields into Excel, In the parsing function you just tell Excel that the file is tab delimited and "voilà" you have the rows and columns for Excels database functions. Other programs have similar functions. If you tell us what you are using, someone here could probably help.

Pat :D
 
I'm getting close... its called openoffice
 
Openoffice is a Unix and Windows alternative that mimmicks the features of Microsoft Office. It's a free package that will open most MS OFFICE files, and comes bundled with WRITER (similar to MS Word), CALC (similar to Excel), IMPRESS (similar to Powerpoint), DRAW (similar to Publisher). www.openoffice.org I've played with it on a unix machine here, and it's pretty impressive considering the price.
Many governments are switching to Unix and Openoffice because they feel Microsoft is too greedy and insecure.

With the real MS Office, Excel is the spreadsheet program, and Access is their database. Excel can import a text file with commas identifying the fields, and should pop up with a dialogue to confirm this. If the openoffice alternative to Excel can't do this, I'd open it in another app that can (access, excel, word, etc) and then SAVE AS to the excel native format - so you can then open it in the OpenOffice CALC program.

Hopefully there's someone here who uses the program who can give a better answer. If all else fails and the data isn't confidential, email it and i'll gladly convert it to the Excel Spreadsheet format for ya.

Mike
 
Hey thanks. I finally figured it out. Text files have their own import requirements. Now I can help if anybody else ends up in this situation.

I have an excel viewer that doesn't seem to actually open or view anykind of file. This program is very sweet when you consider its free and not $200 like excel.
 
Well this isn't a database question but I'll ad it here anyway. I'm having a heck of a time getting MS Word to print the address on the framerselect cards where I want them (and only print one address/card). You did this recently didn't you mike?
 
Hello

We do it with a mail merge in MS Word. The addresses live in ACCESS and the cards are printed in WORD with just one pass. (logo, pictures, the person's address, and text on the left side)

Once you lay out the format of your card and line it up to print properly, you can invoke the mail merge wizard. This will guide you through importing them for each card, from the external database or spreadsheet. Basically, you have to insert special "Variables" in your source document, which will later be replaced with the data from your customer file.

We put a stack of FramerSelect postcards in a dedicated laser printer and let it run on Saturdays. This is ok for small batches of 500 or less, but anything larger we generally send out.

Mike

Ours look something like this:
card-snap.jpg
 
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