Importing text into table, ` character not recognized

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5 total messages Started by Steve_Kugler Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:34

#1969

Author: Steve_Kugler
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:34

18 lines
1932 bytes

I am importing text from a database into a Framemaker table. The database produces a file with the fields separated by tabs. I had someone develop a script that (among other things) changes the TAB-separated file to one where the fields are separated by the ` character (lowercase ~, to the left of the 1 key). I chose this character because it was unlikely to appear in the data. This script worked fine with Framemaker 6. Just switched to Framemaker 8.0 p273 and found that the ` character is not recognized - each line is put into one cell that shows the ` characters.

I am doing the following:

File - Import - File - Copy into Document
Convert - Text
Convert text to table - ANSI (windows) - Import
Table format - Format A, A row with cells separated by Other: `
Heading Rows 0 - Leave Heading Rows Empty
Convert

Here is a line of the text file I'm importing

C1,C2`2`CAP., CERAMIC, 0.01UF,+ 10 -10%,200V`AVX CORPORATION~SR302C103KAATR2`117-1100`1

This should put C1,C2 in one cell, 2 in the next cell, CAP ... in the next cell etc. Instead all the data in each line is crammed into one cell.

If I modify the file by changing all the appearances of ` to another character (e.g., \) it works properly and each field goes into a separate table cell. Is this a bug? If so, how do I report it it?

Re: Importing text into table, ` character not recognized

#1970

Author: Art Campbell
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:09

7 lines
1429 bytes

Well, I suspect the change in behaviour is because FM 8 supports unicode chracters now and FM 6 didn't. So the characters that you inserted in, or by, the old script need to be updated to support whatever the corresponding unicode characters are.

And, I suppose there's a good answer to this, but....

Frame's convert-text-to-tables tools are set up to use Tab-delimited files as a default import format because it's an industry-wide default format. What happened when you tried to import or convert that original Tab-delimited file from the database that is making you go down this other path?

Art

Re: Importing text into table, ` character not recognized

#1974

Author: Steve_Kugler
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:16

5 lines
1176 bytes

Thanks for the info.

I was able to solve my problem by doing a Search and Replace on the script and substituting | for ` and now it works fine. I just needed a character that was unlikely to appear in the data (part numbers).

I don't remember why we didn't use the tab-delimited file, but I suspect the problem was that the text file output from the AS 400/MAPICS database looks tabbed, but it appears to actually be spaces. I just tried importing an unscripted file and everything imported into one cell.

Re: Importing text into table, ` character not recognized

#1975

Author: Kenneth_Benson
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:39

8 lines
1002 bytes

A good reason to use some character other than tab for converting text 
to tables is to preserve the tabs. Sometimes you want a tab construction 
*inside* a table cell.

-- 
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

Re: Importing text into table, ` character not recognized

#1976

Author: Art Campbell
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:41

6 lines
920 bytes

Well, since it's working, you're in good shape.

If it happens again, assuming the output is ASCII and not a mainframe format, you can also set up the FM conversion to demarcate cells after a fixed number of spaces too.

Cheers,
Art

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