Here we discuss the usage of the built in fixed width text profile editor. Quickly reading through this section will definitely make your work more efficient.
In order to use the profile editor you must set up two things within the program as shown below:
1. Select ‘Convert XLS’ conversion method (not ‘MS Excel’)
2. Press F3 to open the fixed width profile editor. It is shown below:
There are two main sections to the profile editor, the editor and profile management. If you will only be specifying one profile then you can ignore the section on profile management.
Editing a Fixed Width Text Profile
The editor consists of a text box for the total number of columns, and an interactive yellow grid used to specify each column.
Reducing the number of columns will erase the settings you had for the higher numbered columns. Increasing on the other hand will not disturb the existing profile settings, but instead will add one or more copies of the last column specified to the end of the profile.
Each row in the grid represents a single column in your fixed width text file. The highlighted green row is the item currently being edited. Modifying an entry is a matter of either typing in a number or making a selection in the two drop down list boxes. Typing in a number always modifies the Width field. Pressing ENTER after typing in a number will automatically take you to the next column to be specified. Therefore, you can very quickly enter the profile widths one after the other. Typing "23 <enter> 14 <enter> 1 <enter>" for example can specify 3 column widths. Navigating the grid is also very easy. Up and down arrow, as well as CTRL-HOME, CTRL-END, Page Up and Page Down all do what you expect.
Double clicking on any item will toggle the justification value.
TIP: If the majority of your pad characters and alignments are different than the default you can quickly enter the profile if you plan it out. To start a new profile, enter 1 for the number of columns, and then press Apply. Next, edit the single column in the grid to how most of your entries will be. Then, enter the total number of columns, and press the Apply button once more. This way you start with most of your default settings being correct.
Profile Management
Do you have 2 or more profiles that you need to use or modify from time to time? If so, you are in luck, the profile management allows you to store, recall, modify, rename and delete as many profiles as your hard disk can hold. Since the profile is stored as a simple text file this means you can have a massive number of profiles. If you look under the installation folder for ‘Convert XLS’ you’ll notice a subfolder called \profiles\ which contains each profile you’ve created. Each time a new profile is created or removed a corresponding text file is created or removed from the \profiles\ folder. Because the profile name is also used as a file name, you may not use certain characters such as the backslash.
To create a new profile simply type in a new name and press Save. If you want to manually edit a profile you can press the Edit button and notepad will load the active profile. Note you can’t edit a profile that has not been saved. Once edited and saved in notepad, you can click the Reload button to bring it up in the ‘Convert XLS’ profile editor.
Profile File Specification
The profile is stored as a simple tab delimited text file. The first column is the row number, followed by the width, pad character and finally the justification. The pad character is stored as an ASCII number between the two [square brackets]. Use "Right" or "Left" for the justification. Do not have any empty lines anywhere in the file. A typical file might look like this (note the <TAB> character is really invisible):
1<TAB>10<TAB>[32] Space<TAB>Right
2<TAB>12<TAB>[32] Space<TAB>Right
3<TAB>2<TAB>[9] Tab<TAB>Left
4<TAB>15<TAB>[32] Space<TAB>Right
5<TAB>7<TAB>[32] Space<TAB>Right
6<TAB>9<TAB>[32] Space<TAB>Right
7<TAB>12<TAB>[32] Space<TAB>Right
See Also:
Conversion of Fixed Width Text Files
Step by Step Example: Converting from Excel to a Fixed Width Text File
Step by Step Example: Converting from a Fixed Width Text File to Excel