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The Import Data window allows you to import data into your plan from other applications, for example from an Excel, CSV or text file. This can save you a lot of typing. To display this window select File>Import... or the equivalent Insert tool bar button. The Import window will be displayed. Select Excel/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.

Mapping imported columns to guest properties

Setting up common titles and suffixes will often help PerfectTablePlan to make better sense of the data you are importing. Click on the Titles and Suffixes buttons to set your 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 File type is set to 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 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, last name or suffixes are not in separate columns, PerfectTablePlan will do it's best to unravel them. For example it can handle all the following:

You will be warned of any unmapped input columns:

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, RSVP, Icon file and Import this row Y/N?, which are based on the values below:

Changes made to text in the import table will not change the import file. You can also edit any of these properties later, after completing the import.

Saving mappings

If you create a new import mapping you will be given the option to save it for use as a new File type. This will then be available the next time you import.

Importing groups

If you wish to import guests as couples, families and/or groups you need to:

1.Have a group column in your input data

2.Use the same name in the group column for each person in the couple, family or group

3.Make this column the Group column during import

If group consecutive guests with same last name is checked then consecutive guests with the same last name will be added to the same group. This can be useful for family events. This option is not available if you set a group column.

You can set the default proximities for guests imported as members of couples, families and/or groups in the Preferences pane.

When you import group properties (such as group contact details) these are taken from the first guest in the group.

The Num. guests field is the number of anonymous guests to be added to the names imported. 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" and 2 anonymous guests will be added (all in the same group).

The Num. in group field is the total number of guests in the group, including any named guests. It can be from 0 to 999. For example, if the guest is "John Smith" and Num. in group field is  4 the guests "John Smith" and 3 anonymous guests will be added (all in the same group). If Num. in group is fewer than the number of named guests, it will be ignored.

Note You can set the Num. guests or Num. in group column, but not both.

You can easily change the grouping of guests later by dragging them to another group in the Groups pane.

Further options

Location shows the location of the import file. Worksheet shows the name of the worksheet (tab) selected from the Excel spreadsheet. Click on the Browse... button to change the file/worksheet 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 Encoding to set the text encoding for text based input files, such as CSV files. Automatic guesses the encoding and will be the right choice in the vast majority of cases.

Use the Format drop-down list to choose whether the imported file is in Excel format, 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.

Check group consecutive guests with same last name if you want to automatically assign consecutive guests with the same last name into the same group. This option is not available if you have selected a group column.

Uncheck single guest per cell if some rows might contain names of multiple guests e.g. if you want to interpret "Mr & Mrs Smith" as separate guests "Mr Smith" and "Mrs Smith".

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 Split column(s)... to split one or more selected columns into multiple columns.

Click on Join columns... to join two or more selected columns into a single column. See below for more details.

Click on Copy column(s)... to make copies of one or more selected columns. The copies are added to the right of the selected columns.

Click on Delete column to delete the currently selected column.

Splitting and joining columns

When you are importing it can be useful to split and join columns. For example you might want to  split a column in the format "name, company" into two separate columns "name" and "company", so you can import them into separate fields in PerfectTablePlan. You can carry out multiple split and join operations to get the data into the appropriate format.

For more details see joining and splitting columns.

Preview

One you have mapped all the columns to PerfectTablePlan properties click Next>.

You will then get the chance to preview the changes, before updating your plan. Uncheck any guests you don't wish to import.

If there are existing guests in your plan, guests will be colour coded. Blue for existing guests. Pink for new guests.

You will be warned about potential issues, such as duplicate names or IDs.

The duplicates are also marked with a flag icon in the last column.

Uncheck any guests that you don't want to import. Use the Uncheck imported, Check imported, Uncheck imported duplicates or Check imported duplicates to speed this up.

Click <Back to make changes. Click Cancel to discard the import. Click OK to import the data and close the window.

See also:

•Import your guest list (video with audio, 11:59 minutes)

•Edit guest list data during import (video with audio, 1:16 minutes)

•Importing

•Merge import

•Quick Add Guests window

•Importing guests from Excel files

•Importing guests from text and CSV files

•Importing guests from vCards

•Import guest details from Outlook

•Import guest details from Outlook Express

•Example import formats