APPLICATION DESIGN

Importing tabular text
Tabular text is ASCII text arranged in rows and columns, separated by characters. When you import a tabular text file into a view, each text row becomes an individual document, and each text column becomes a field. The original cell contents become field contents.

There is a limit of 1536 total characters per record for tabular text imported into a view.

If the ASCII file and the view have different formats, create a column descriptor file (COL) to parse the ASCII file so its individual components correspond to columns in the view or document fields. Then when you import the ASCII file, select the "Use format file" option in the Tabular Text Import dialog box.

Viewing imported text

ASCII text files are monospaced. If columns in the view use a proportional font, text from the imported file may be truncated. To avoid problems when importing text into a view, select Typewriter Fonts (monospaced text) for the columns. You may want to resize columns to be sure the data is not truncated on import. Truncation occurs only in the displayed text; no data is lost.

To import tabular text into a view

The source file containing the tabular text file must be on your local hard drive or on a file server to which you are connected.

1. Select the database and open the view that will receive the source data.

2. Choose File - Import.

3. Select "Tabular Text."

4. Select the name of the source file.

5. Click Import.

6. Select a form to use for the imported source data from the Use Form list.

7. (Optional) Enter a "Header Line Count" or a "Footer Line Count."


8. Enter the number of "Lines Per Page" in the source file. 9. Leave Main Document(s) selected in the "Import as" list, unless you are creating response documents.

10. (Optional) Select "Calculate fields on form during document import."

11. (Optional) Select "Use format file," click "Choose format file," and select a column descriptor (COL) file.

12. Click OK.

See Also