General rules, tips and tricks to use with Passport s Excel based Data Import module

Transcription

1 General rules, tips and tricks to use with Passport s Excel based Data Import module 1.XLS files are typically required and not.xlsx Due to variability between operating systems and versions of Office and Excel it is best to use.xls files to import and not the newer.xlsx versions. You can do a Save As in your.xlsx to get it saved as an.xls. 2 The native first tab (worksheet) in a spreadsheet is what is imported Excel allows you to re arrange the tabs (worksheets) in a spreadsheet but it is the native first tab (Sheet1) that will be used for import if there is more than one. You can delete the other tabs (worksheets) so that only your one target worksheet exists and that will work fine. 3 No commas allowed in the column titles The use of a comma in your column title will result in an error and you won t be able to perform an import. Not an allowed title: Stock #, SKU Allowed: Stock # SKU 4 No spaces allowed as final characters of the column titles Make sure there are no additional spaces in each column title. Spaces within the column title are fine such as between words, but no space is allowed after the final word. Not an allowed title: Stock # SKU (the cursor shows there is a space after the U) Allowed: Stock # SKU 5 The update mechanism ignores un mapped and blank fields Secondary to importing data you can use the Data Import module to update records in the system. You can leave data fields out of your update mapping, those missing fields will not cause existing data to be deleted. You can leave data fields blank in your update mapping, blank fields will not delete existing data. Page 1 of 8

2 6 The update mechanism ignores the Current Location field (Passport Assets) You are not allowed to update a data field that is controlled by the system, such as the asset s Current Location field. That requires a formal transaction such as a Move transaction. You will be required to have the Current Location field in your map, however it will be ignored, and it won t matter if you leave the field blank or have a value entered. 7 & combines text from multiple cells =A1&B1 Page 2 of 8

3 8 allows including spaces and characters =A1& &B1 =A1& &B1 Page 3 of 8

4 9 Fill > Down copies a value into as many other cells as needed 1. Enter the first value. 2. Highlight that cell as the starting point and then drag down to the final cell. 3. Menu > Fill Down Page 4 of 8

5 10 Fill > Series enters sequential numbers 1. Enter the first value. 2. Highlight the first cell as the starting point and drag down to the final cell. 3. Menu > Fill Series > Column, Linear, Step Value 1 > OK Page 5 of 8

6 11 Add leading zeros 1. Right click the column and choose Format Cells. 2. Select Custom category. 3. Enter as many 0 s as you want to be the length of the numbers. 4. Then click OK. Page 6 of 8

7 12 Excel does not retain those leading 0 s when doing an import, so you have to do a workaround 1. Insert a new column next to the original, and format it as Text i.e. right click > format cells > text. 2. Copy the Custom column, and Paste it into Notepad. 3. Then Copy from MS Notepad Ctrl A (select all) and Ctrl C (copy), and Paste into the new text column in Excel. 4. Now you can use that new column as the import column and the leading 0 s will stay intact. Page 7 of 8

8 13 Unable to Open Spreadsheet If you re unable to Open your spreadsheet via the Data Import screen and you receive this error message, it means there is a problem with the spreadsheet itself. We are currently investigating workarounds. Page 8 of 8