We received a file that has data on multiple lines for each record. Any know what it is and how to manage it?

Example of one record:
3251,James,Brown,123 Some Street,Wichita,KS,12345,{item desc price
1 Peanuts 1.00
2 Doughnuts 2.00
3 Chocolate 6.00
TOTAL 9.00
}

It will be a daily job so we are looking at writing an excel macro to try to handle it, but I'm sure there's a better way.

Thanks for your help.

P. Brittle,

We need more details about what you mean by "manage" it. What exactly do you want to do with this file? How is the data to be layed out?

There are many things we can do with this file, and many ways to handle them, but we need to know exactly what you are looking for.

Regards,
Rapha

Hi,

This looks like transactional data... PrintShop Mail is designed to work with promotional data (i.e. only the address part).


As found in http://www.objectiflune.com/OL/Products/PrintShopMail/Index.aspx , typical applications are:

- Direct mail
- Tickets and postcards
- Business cards
- Invitations
- Personalized collaterals
- Versioned brochures / manuals
- Other promotional documents with variable content

A tool like PlanetPress Suite ( http://www.objectiflune.com/OL/Products/PlanetPressSuite/Index.aspx
) is more appropriate for transactional documents like invoices, statements, etc.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Raphael & Benoit for the help. That puts a name to the face. Is there a way to convert transactional data without having to buy new software or even buying something significantly cheaper than Planetpress?

P.,

Unfortunately transactional data is not something that can be converted like a language or file format. The basics of it is that PrintShop Mail cannot do this type of document (Invoices/Report) as it can't handle variable lengths of data. For example, if you have one invoice with 4 items and another with 6, PrintShop Mail can't determine where your items stop.

Theoretically there may be a way to format this data with a Javascript custom script, however I don't even know for sure - there would definitely be a number of limitations. This is not officially supported by us so the best I can do is leave you with a few examples (provided as is with no warantee whatsoever) and if you know enough Javascript you may be able to figure it out.

Here are some examples from the forum:
http://www.objectiflune.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=000038
http://www.objectiflune.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=000005
http://www.objectiflune.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=000004
http://www.objectiflune.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=000003
http://www.objectiflune.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=000002


If you don't know Javascript or cannot do this on your own, speak to your sales representative (whom you purchased PrintShop Mail from) and he can arrange for an evaluation of this project as a professional service (which entails these services are to be payed).