ForumsTips & TricksMulti-line CSV File


Multi-line CSV File
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harry

Posted: Oct 25, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
I'm trying to create an Excel document that has on one of its cells a multi line (or line break) entry. I'd like to import this to Notebook so the "notes" part of it will contain the line break. How do I do that in Excel? When saving as a csv file will that import with the line breaks intact? Thanks for any help anyone can offer.
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Oct 25, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
It should work. You can always just give it a try with a small CSV file and find out.
harry

Posted: Oct 25, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
I tried it many different ways, but:

1. If I press "return" in Excel it just goes to the next cell.
2. "Wrap" doesn't import in csv
3. Tried using but that doesn't work
4. Using commas and pipes don't work
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Oct 26, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
I'm not sure what "wrap" is, so I can't help you there. There should be a way to do it.

There is a topic Here that I think may help.
jebanks

Posted: Oct 27, 2008
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Harry, here's how to solve your problems.

You can set up Excel so that you can put line breaks within cells. Here's how to do it (Mac version), plus another Excel option you should set up:

a) Select all of the cells on the worksheet you're on, and choose "Format >Cells...." from the Menu bar. Under "Alignment", put a checkmark in "Wrap Text" in the "Text Control" section. Click OK.
b) In the Excel preferences, choose the "Edit" section and make sure that "Edit directly in cell" has a checkmark. Click OK.

Now, you should be able to type or insert line breaks, so long as you are editing directly in the cell and not in the formula bar.

Here's how to get your CSV file to accept line breaks within the note body. The CSV format will respect your line breaks so long as the note body text is surrounded by double quote marks. In other words, if you have line breaks in your Excel document cell, it should look like this:

"Text text text text.
Text text text text.
Text text text text.
Text text text text."

If you save your Excel as a CSV and everything else is set up correctly, a cell like that above should import into Toodle.com Notebook with line breaks intact. You will have quotemarks in the notes, but you can just delete them whenever you have occasion to edit the note.

There's a much longer post in the Tips & Tricks forum called
"how to import palm desktop (mac) memos/notes to the notebook" that gives more details. Just ignore that parts that don't apply to your situation.
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