All Things Postal: News, Views, and Rules

[Charlie_Q]

It seems that Smartmailer can't correctly handle ANY version of Excel.

Excel 95 - limited to 16385 rows

Excel 2003 - Gives error messge saying incorrect excel format

Excel 2007 - takes a real long time to import - then it skips all data after the first blank cell

Example: 1000 row file with Address1 and Address2 fields (among others)

     On the 5th row, there is no data in Address2

     Smartmailer skips all Address2 data after the 5th row when importing.

     It seems like it gives up trying to find data after the first blank cell

I read earlier reply by PB employee saying "Excell 2007 import not recommended" - If they can't make it work, they should remove the option from the program.

[PB-Jeremy · Accepted solution]

Charlie_Q,

Thank you for your post!

If you are having problems with importing data into Excel from Smartmailer, we usually first suggest that you import into CSV instead.  The reason behind this is because this is a simple and immediate fix for this issue.

What we have noticed so far as to the problems with importing data into excel is that excel formatting is usually set up with "codes" that cause the data to not be imported properly.  Many times these codes cannot be seen.  As an example, if you have a code in excel such as "C1+C7=sub", you may not see this code, but it could cause an importing problem. 

If you would prefer to use Excel as opposed to CSV, I would recommend that you call our SmartMailer support group at 1-800-522-0020.  The phone agent can remote connect to your PC to help you import this data.

Thank you,

Jeremy

Message Edited by PB-Jeremy on 03-12-2009 05:06 PM

[Charlie_Q]

Jeremy - thanks for the reply.  I have spoken before to the supoort group before without results, but will probably call again.  

I have never gotten Smartmailer to accept CSV files either.  I create the CSV files through various means, normally with a .csv extension.  When I go to import into Smartmailer, it only accepts .txt files.  I have tried renaming my file, or just choosing All Files and selecting it that way.  Once it gets to the column specification screen, it is obvious that it doesn't recognize the data in the file.  There are some random characters in the first column, first row, then the rest is blank.  If I go ahead and tell it what is in each column, it imports, but has no data in the rows.

Is there some special file format or properties the CSV file has to have for an import to work?

[PB-Jeremy]

Hi Charlie,

We have brainstormed about what we can suggest you do next, but if you are using CSV and you have selected All Files, the data should import into CSV just fine.  However, I see you have pointed out that the data has some random characters and the rest is blank.  This seem to be a more specific issue and we will probably need to look at exactly what is happening with your data.  For this reason, I have sent you a private message.  Could you please click on "Message" and then click on "Smartmailer".

Thank you,

Jeremy

[ScottSanders]

Most of our customer files are in Excel, so we just use DBFs instead, and as the geniuses at MS removed DBF support from Excel 2007, we are using OpenOffice.org 3.0's Calc to cover that.

We have very little trouble with this, except very occasionally the DBF headers don't save correctly this way, in which case we simply reopen the DBF in OpenOffice.org 3.0 Calc and reenter them manually, then delete the erroneous header row (this takes a minute at most).

Try it.

[mandiiiie]

When I'm saving my excel files as a cvs file. I will highlight my list  and put it into a new excel spreadsheet. Then I save it as a cvs  and it works great. It saves alot of hassle for me.