• Powerful, fast, recipe driven, and very easy to use.

• Eliminates the possibility of human error when moving data between text to Excel / CSV, or PDF to Excel.

• Automatically reads text reports, and creates Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or CSV files.

• Do one or thousands of files and folders, set and forget.

• Command line able. Run in batches.

• Automatically creates the report per specs saved in recipes.

• Compatible with future changes in input format with minor recipe change.

• Generating a new report with different data is a single click process.

• New Recipe creation/editing typically takes a few seconds to a few minutes depending on complexity.

• Built in help for training new users.

• Delivered with example data for training purposes.

The TXL Wizard views input text as a collection of data tables (rows and columns). Columns separated by spaces can be parsed into the correct columns within Excel. The user has considerable control over where each exported table's rows and columns begin and end. Tabulated data that often seem extremely difficult or almost impossible to properly enter into Excel or databases without human errors will now be easy, fast and error free.
 

 

Example data Shipped with the software

To quickly get up and running, we have included a few example text files (shipped with this software) that you can test. They are found in the Examples folder located in the application folder (root directory).  If you selected a default installation. that is C:\ Program Files\SoftInterface, Inc\TXL Wizard\Examples.

You should carefully read the brief material below before using the TXL Wizard. This will help you understand how the  works. Reading this material should take no more than 10 to 15 minutes. Running the examples only a few minutes more.
 

Using the TXL Wizard

First, you must convert your native documents to text format.  For example to go from PDF to XLS you must first convert the PDF to text.  PDF to text conversion is done with 'Convert Doc'. 

 

Once in text format, there are two main methods to translate files, namely the File Marking method, and the Recipe File method.

 

FILE MARKING METHOD

This method involves inserting special markers within the text file to control the translation process.

 

 

Summary of Markers

 

Using a combination of these simple markers, many complex data parsing tasks can be achieved.

To copy a text table to Excel, insert two control lines before the top row of the data. The two control lines you should insert are the Table Start marker followed by the required field markers. Then after the last data row of the table, insert the Table End Marker as shown below:

     >>1                                    Table Start Marker (n=1)
     ------------ ------------- ----------- Field (or Column) Template
     xxxxxxxxxxxx yyyyyyyyyyyyy zzzzzzzzzzz Text data to import to Excel
     xxxxxxxxxxxx yyyyyyyyyyyyy zzzzzzzzzzz Text data to import to Excel
     . .
     . .
     . .
     <<1                                    Table End Marker

Short Cut markers:
In the case where only a single type of field marker is required, you can use a short cut marker instead of typing many repeated "-" (dash) or "=" (equal) characters:

1. Single Filed Only: - (a single "-" at the beginning of the first column means all "–" to the end of line)

 

  Sample 1 and Sample 2 are exactly equivalent

  Sample 1                                                         Sample 2

   >>1                                                                 >>1
  -                                                                        -----------------------
  aaaa  bbbb  cccc  dddd                                     aaaa bbbb cccc dddd

  aaaa  bbbb  cccc  dddd                                     aaaa bbbb cccc dddd 

  . .                                                                       .  .

  . .                                                                       .  .

  <<1                                                                  <<1

2. Multi-Field Only: = (a single "=" at the beginning of the first column means all "=" to the end of line)
 

  Sample 3 and Sample 4 are exactly equivalent
  Sample 3                                                          Sample 4
  >>1                                                                   >>1
  =                                                                       ==============
  aaaa bbbb cccc dddd                                        aaaa bbbb cccc dddd
  aaaa bbbb cccc dddd                                        aaaa bbbb cccc dddd

  . .                                                                       .  .

  . .                                                                       .  .

  <<1                                                                   <<1

The following examples illustrates how and where to use the file
markers.

- Example1: Importing a text file to Excel:

Assume you have a text file that looks something like this:

     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

     xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz wwwwwwwwwwww
             yyyyyyy      wwwwwwwwwwww
     xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz wwwwwwwwwwww

     xx yyyyyy zzzzzzzzzzzz wwwwwwwwwwwwww
     xx        zzzzzzzzzzzz wwwwwwwwwwwwww
     xx        zzzzzzzzzzzz wwwwwwwwwwwwww

It is possible to fit the above text (represented by the x's, y's, z's, and w's data columns) correctly into 3 tables. Each table may have a different number of rows and columns.

The process is very simple:

Step 1: Edit the text file (or a copy of it) by inserting Markers to define the start and end of table rows and columns as follows:

Step 2: Select the "Use a Marked Up Text File" option, then click convert. This will launch Microsoft Excel and copy the data into the correct cells. 
If the Excel file name selected already exists, the corresponding cells will be overwritten. All other cells and all formatting information will be preserved. 
In many cases, you can make the TXL software automatically determine the columns. For example we can alternatively mark table 2 as follows:

     >>2                                   Table 2 start
     ===================================== Import as multiple (4) columns
     xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz     wwwwwwwwwwww . First data row
     yyyyyyy                  wwwwwwwwwwww .
     xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz     wwwwwwwwwwww . Last data row
     <<2                                   Table 2 end

- Sometimes you may need to mix the column markers to achieve a desired effect. For example:

      >>1                                Table 2 start
      ==================== ------------- Creates 3 + 1 Columns
      xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz ww wwwwwwwwww . First data row
              yyyyyyy      ww wwwwwwwwww .
      xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz ww wwwwwwwwww . last data row
      <<1                                Table 2 end

This will import the data into Excel in 4 columns (3 columns for XYZ data, followed one column for the "w" data in a single column. Note that the "w" data is not split into 2 columns since it has been marked with a Single column marker "-" (dash) instead of the multiple column marker "=" (equals).

- If you wish to import the spaces between the z's and the w's into a separate column in Excel, you should do this instead:

     >>1                                    Table 2 start
     ==================== --- ------------- Creates 3 multiple + 1 empty + 1 column
     xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz     ww wwwwwwwwww . First data row
             yyyyyyy          ww wwwwwwwwww .
     xxxxxxx yyyyyyy zzzz     ww wwwwwwwwww . last data row
     <<1                                    Table 2 end

Sometimes the columns are not separated by any spaces; rather they are determined by exact location. For example the table:

     >>1
     -- -- ----
     MM/DD/YYYY
     01/09/2001
     02/15/2001
     02/17/2003
     .
     .
     <<1

As marked above, the second data row will copy "01/", "09/" and "2001" into Excel cells A2, B2, C2, respectively, with the slash marks being included.  When being used for exact location, the dash markings should be interpreted as meaning the exact number of places represented by the dashes plus one at the end of each column, with the exception of the last column.  The additional place is not automatically added on the last column.  

If you wanted "01", "09" and "2001" without the slashes, do this:

     >>1
     -  -  ----
     MM/DD/YYYY
     01/09/2001
     02/15/2001
     02/17/2003
     .
     .
     <<1

 

Here is another example to illustrate this concept.  If your file markings on your input file look like this:

 

     >>1
     -    --   ---  ---- ----
     1234/5678/1234/5678/1234
     1234/5678/1234/5678/1234
     1234/5678/1234/5678/1234
     . .

     . .

     <<1

 

Your output in A1:E2 will look like this:

 

     12    567   1234   5678/   1234
     12    567   1234   5678/   1234

     . .

RECIPE FILE METHOD

The file marking method is very simple and works quite well in most cases.   However, when you have a large number of files with similar table structures (but with different data) it may not be desirable to mark each text file. This is a case where you should consider the Recipe Method.

A Recipe File is a text file that contains saved table and column-parsing information. The recipe can later be applied to unmarked data files.

CREATING A RECIPE FILE
One simple way to create (or edit) a recipe is to use the Recipe Editor from the edit menu or a simple text editor such as Windows Notepad.

- Recipe File name: *.rcp where * is any legal file name

- Example Recipe file to illustrate file format

FILE CONTENTS                   COMMENT
[Header]                       ;Header Section ID
Product=TXL-B                  ;Do not change
FileType=RECIPE                ;Do not change
FileFormat=1.1                 ;Do not change

[Table 1]                      ;Table 1 Section ID
ReadStartLine=INCOME STATEMENT ;Find row containing "INCOME STATEMENT"
ReadStartLineOffset=0          ;table starts at the same row
ReadEndLine=BALANCE SHEET      ;Find row containing "Balance Sheet"
ReadEndLineOffset=-1           ;table 1 ends one row before end key
Parsing=------------------ ==================== ;Column Template
WriteColumn=A                   ;Start column in Excel

[Table 2]
ReadStartLine= BALANCE SHEET
ReadStartLineOffset=0
ReadEndLine= END OF REPORT
ReadEndLineOffset=-1
Parsing=-------------- ===============
WriteColumn=A

.
.
.

The above Recipe file will work correctly for the example text below:

- Example Data (for the above recipe example):

INCOME STATEMENT
 

ACCOUNT             First   Second
                    Quarter Quarter

Revenues:

Sales Products      $1,000  $1,000,000
Sales Services      $1,000  $1,000,000
Sales Misc          $1,000  $1,000,000

Expenses:

Payroll             $300    $300
Travel Expenses     $300    $300
Other               $1,000  $1,000


BALANCE SHEET

Assets:

Account        1st Q  2nd Q
xxxxxx xx      yyyyyy zzzzzz
xxxxx xxxx xxx yyyyyy zzzzzz
xxxxxxxxxx

        END OF REPORT

 

 

SoftInterface, Inc., your PDF to XLS conversion center.