Importing a comma separated Mailing list

[Paul Hodges]

Generating a comma separated address list for importing into the PC+

I am using PC+ V 11.I on several computers with XP or 7. This is the first time I have tried to import anything.
I have modified a mailing (phone book list) from Servant Keepers (SK) software, and put it into the correct order, and wording for importing to PC+. I had to introduce a large number of commas, and Double Quote marks to fill in the blanks.
When I tried to import it, PC+ would only accept the Double Quote marks that were already in the SK Comma separated export, so that most everything was pushed together into the wrong columns.
I could see that the Double Quote marks in various fonts look different (left and right) even though Word processors indicate they are the same font (using only one key to print them) therefore I have to assume they are Double Quote marks, and your instructions only say to use double Quotes, so why do they not work?
The Double Quote Marks in ASCII (decimal) are Character code 34 and are good but the Character codes for the left and right Double Quotes which are used by all the Fonts I looked at were 147 and 148, I know this because I substituted the 34 for the 147 and 148 characters in several lines, and they worked!
I have 70 some names I still have to fix, one Double Quote at a time using the symbol insert function because the Find and Replace editing function does not work with extended symbols!
I hope this all makes sense.

[NeilZ]

Generating a comma separated address list for importing into the PC+

I am using PC+ V 11.I on several computers with XP or 7. This is the first time I have tried to import anything.
I have modified a mailing (phone book list) from Servant Keepers (SK) software, and put it into the correct order, and wording for importing to PC+. I had to introduce a large number of commas, and Double Quote marks to fill in the blanks.
When I tried to import it, PC+ would only accept the Double Quote marks that were already in the SK Comma separated export, so that most everything was pushed together into the wrong columns.
I could see that the Double Quote marks in various fonts look different (left and right) even though Word processors indicate they are the same font (using only one key to print them) therefore I have to assume they are Double Quote marks, and your instructions only say to use double Quotes, so why do they not work?
The Double Quote Marks in ASCII (decimal) are Character code 34 and are good but the Character codes for the left and right Double Quotes which are used by all the Fonts I looked at were 147 and 148, I know this because I substituted the 34 for the 147 and 148 characters in several lines, and they worked!
I have 70 some names I still have to fix, one Double Quote at a time using the symbol insert function because the Find and Replace editing function does not work with extended symbols!
I hope this all makes sense.

The problem is that all character fields must be enclosed with the double quotes (" "), if a field is missing that Powerchurch expects, the double quote must have a place holder.

Sort of like this:
"lastname","firstname","", "mr & mrs Firstname Lastname", ... etc

I also suspect that the system is expecting the standard ASCII symbols, and not the extended character set.

That said, it may have been easier for you to export from Servant Keeper, import into Excel format (97-2003), then import using the spreadsheet.

FWIW ... if you're currently using Servant Keeper, Powerchurch does offer a conversion from that database to Powerchurch. You can call them for pricing.

[Paul Hodges]

The quotes are, all there and also the commas. The problem is that the standard keyboard quote key does not produce the acceptable ASCII number symbol. The standard keyboard quote symbol should be 34 but the ones that are coming up are 147 and 148. I am using Microsoft Word starter Which might have some differences form the more complete software. Thanks for your help.

[NeilZ]

The quotes are, all there and also the commas. The problem is that the standard keyboard quote key does not produce the acceptable ASCII number symbol. The standard keyboard quote symbol should be 34 but the ones that are coming up are 147 and 148. I am using Microsoft Word starter Which might have some differences form the more complete software. Thanks for your help.

That may be the issue ... Starter is basically a stripped down Word 2010 ... the text format it saves in is probably NOT ASCII ..

Again, my advice ... try importing into Excel, rearrange the data columns there, save as Excell 97-2003, then import. That said, you may want to call Powerchurch support directly.

[Zorak]

These replacements are controlled by the "autocorrect" settings in Word. You can disable this behavior, so it doesn't replace quotes with left and right quotes, hyphens with long hyphens, etc. The autocorrect options are in the Options or Preferences or whatever it is called in Word.

Another alternative would be to copy all the text from the Word document and paste into Notepad, which is plain ASCII text, or as Neil suggested, do the work in Excel, then Save As CSV.

[dozone]

Can you kindly provide a sample text file that can be used to import data from?
It would be great if it has multiple entries and one with comma delimited and another file with tabs
Thanks

[NeilZ]

Can you kindly provide a sample text file that can be used to import data from?
It would be great if it has multiple entries and one with comma delimited and another file with tabs
Thanks

Some info:

1. the system can only import the Family Mailing List data, not any personal profile data.
2. the system can import from Excel 5 or 97 spreadsheets, dBase files and comma-delimited files, and comma-delimited files that can have the column titles on the first line.

The format can be found in the Powerchurch manual, or by pressing the <F1> key when using the import module.

This was copied from the built-in Powerchurch manual:

Code: Select all

The data file you prepare for import should be in the following format structure:

 

Field Name    Data Type   Width    Notes
 
LASTNAME      Character     25     Last name of key spouse 
FIRSTNAME     Character     20     First name of key spouse 
SALUT         Character     25     Salutation 
NAMELINE      Character     33     First line of address label 
ADDRESS       Character     30  
ADDRESS2      Character     30 
CITY          Character     25 
STATE         Character      2     State or Province 
ZIP           Character     10     Zip or Postal Code 
COUNTRY       Character     12     Leave blank unless foreign 
CR_ROUTE      Character      4     Carrier route
DEL_PT        Character      2     Delivery point 
HOMEPHONE     Character     14 
DATE_REG      Date           8     Date registered 
CATEGORY      Character     25     Mailing Category
 

[Martha F]

I use PC+ 11.5 and am trying to import for the first time. I export to Excel frequently.
I have my data to import in Excel and had to save it as CSV because my version 11.5 still calls for Excel 5 or Excel 95-97 for import and export.
I can't save my xlsx spreadsheet (Excel 2010) in that early a version. And now Excel 2013 is available. Will PC+ move to newer versions of Excel?

Also, when I imported a list of people, I found that some were new and some were already in the database. The import created duplicate families but there was no message that the families already existed. Now I have to go through and look for duplicates. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

[NeilZ]

I use PC+ 11.5 and am trying to import for the first time. I export to Excel frequently.
I have my data to import in Excel and had to save it as CSV because my version 11.5 still calls for Excel 5 or Excel 95-97 for import and export.
I can't save my xlsx spreadsheet (Excel 2010) in that early a version. And now Excel 2013 is available. Will PC+ move to newer versions of Excel?

Also, when I imported a list of people, I found that some were new and some were already in the database. The import created duplicate families but there was no message that the families already existed. Now I have to go through and look for duplicates. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

Eventually PCPlus will be able to save in the newer versions of Excel, but unfortunately the report writer that is currently being use does not have that capability. It will not happen until a newer version of PCPlus (think v12 probably) is available, at least that is what I expect based on hints I've read on the forums.

You've also seen that the system does not check for duplicates, as it is not setup to do that in any Family Mailing List import. It assuming that the mailing list you are importing are all new families, as the only time this is usually done is when importing into the program for the first time.

[HighlandPresChurch]

Every time I import a csv or Excel 97-2003 file into Power Church, does it automatically overwrite the previous file? Or how can I delete the files that I imported?

[NeilZ]

Every time I import a csv or Excel 97-2003 file into Power Church, does it automatically overwrite the previous file? Or how can I delete the files that I imported?

I'm assuming you're talking about a mailing list import ?? As I said in the last time I posted here in 2014, the system DOES NOT check for duplicates, as it figures that these are all new families you're entering.

You'll have to delete the duplicate Mailing List Profiles one by one.

What were you trying to do when you did the import ??

[HighlandPresChurch]

Every time I import a csv or Excel 97-2003 file into Power Church, does it automatically overwrite the previous file? Or how can I delete the files that I imported?

I'm assuming you're talking about a mailing list import ?? As I said in the last time I posted here in 2014, the system DOES NOT check for duplicates, as it figures that these are all new families you're entering.

You'll have to delete the duplicate Mailing List Profiles one by one.

What were you trying to do when you did the import ??

Update the database, but now that I know that it doesn't check for duplicates, then I'll have to delete the incorrect ones one by one. Oh, well, I don't have anything else better to do. LOL. Thank you for your quick answer!