Import data window |
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The Import data window allows you to import data into your plan from other applications, for example from an CSV or text file. This can save you a lot of typing. To display this window select File> Import... or the equivalent Main tool bar button. The Import window will be displayed. Select CSV/text file and click OK. An Open window will be displayed. Select the file you wish to import. The Import data window will be displayed. Note PerfectTablePlan cannot read Excel files on MacOSX. If you have an Excel file you must open it in Excel and save it as a CSV (.csv) file. Renaming the file from .xls to .csv will not work. Mapping imported columns to guest properties Setting up common titles will often help PerfectTablePlan to make better sense of the data you are importing. Click on the Titles button to set your title preferences. Select File type to import a pre-defined file type. Select custom to define your own. Click on the button to show more options. Map imported columns to guest properties shows you how the file data will be imported, including the effects of various options described below. If you have selected the File type as custom you need to tell PerfectTablePlan which columns in the import file correspond to which guest properties. Select from the drop-down lists at the top of each column to do this. For example the column 1 might correspond to the guest title, column 2 column to the guest last name and the column 4 column to the guest meal choice. Leave the drop-down list as <ignore> to ignore the contents of a column. Empty lines in your import file are ignored. If you have multiple guests in one row or the title, first name or last name are not in separate columns, PerfectTablePlan will do it's best to unravel them. For example it can handle all the following: If title is imported, but not gender or age, the import will attempt to guess the gender or age from the title using the titles set in the Preferences window. Note You can edit information in the table. This will change the information imported, but not affect the contents of the file you are importing. Make sure you press Enter to confirm any edits before clicking on Apply or OK. Text is imported directly except for Gender, Age, VIP and RSVP, which are based on the values below:
You can easily edit any of these properties at a later point. If you wish to import guests as couples, families and/or group you need to:
If no group is set then consecutive guests with the same surname will be added to the same group. You can choose the proximity to use for members of the same group from the Proximity for guests in the same group drop-down list. The Num. guests field is the number of additional guests to be added for a given guest in the same group. It can be from 0 to 999. For example if the guest is "John Smith" and Num. guests field is 2 the guests "John Smith", "guest 1 of John Smith" and "guest 2 of John Smith" will be added (all in the same group). You can easily change the grouping of guests later by dragging them to another group in the Groups pane. Location shows the location of the import file. Click on the Browse... button to change the file you wish to import. Use Ignore first if you wish to ignore one or more rows in the file. Often the first row is a header and you won't want to import it. Use the Format drop-down list to choose whether the imported file is in CSV format or a custom format (e.g. columns separated by Tab characters). If you are using a custom format, set Column separator and Row separator to the field and record separators in the import file. Click on Add row to add an additional row to be input. This is useful if you want to type in the data for additional guests. If a row is selected the new row will be added below, otherwise it will be added to the end. Click on Delete row to delete the currently selected row. Click on Add column to add an additional column to be input. This is useful if you want to type in some additional data for each guest, e.g. their gender or group. If a column is selected the new row will be added to the right, otherwise it will be added to the end. Click on Delete column to delete the currently selected column. Click Apply to import the data. Click OK to import the data and close the window. Click Cancel to discard the changes. See also: Insert guests scratch-pad window Importing guests from Excel files |