converting rtf file to access2002 for final output to excel

  • Thread starter Thread starter DK
  • Start date Start date
D

DK

Thank you in advance for your help.

I have an address label file in .rtf format. It has 3 X
10 labels on one page totally about 14,000 address
labels. My final goal is to convert it into MS Excel 2002
so i can get under one column the first name, the second
column the last name, the thrid column the street address
and so on.

In Excel 2002, I tried using the Edit, Past Special,
Paste as Text function but the data is not user friendly.
By using this approach, I will have to use brute force in
cutting and pasting names and addresses in the respective
columns described above. Not good when you have 14,000
address, right? Accordingly, I thought of importing
this .rtf file into Access 2002, converting it into user-
friendly data and then exporting this data into Excel
2002? Does this make sense to you? If yes, can you
suggest a way of imprting this .rtf file into access and
achieving what I have set out above?

Your help would be highly appreciated.

Regards,

DK
 
Hi DK,

The best thing to do is to go back to the original source of the data
and get the owner to export it in a friendlier format. If you are making
legitimate use of the data this shouldn't be a problem.

If for some reason the owner can't give you a sensibly-formatted file,
here's how I'd do it:

1) Open the file in Word. If it's formatted as a table,
a) rearrange it into a single column,
b) use a series of search-and-reaplace to convert
Name
Street
City State Zip
to
Name<tab>Street<tab>City<tab>State<tab>Zip
c) tidy up, convert to text, save as plain text, and import into
Access.

If it's not formatted as a table but has a single tab between items in
separate columns, convert it to a table and proceed as above.

If it's formatted with multiple tab stops and spaces between columns,
I'd save it as a textfile and write a Perl or VBScript script to
re-arrange it into a neat delimited file.
 
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