Importing text-file: characters are troubling???

arlo · November 02, 2017, 08:34:27 AM

Okay, great.

OBADE · November 12, 2017, 07:58:52 AM

Hi Arlo,

All of a sudden the same error-message occurs again, though I neatly save the importSongs.txt from Windows Notepad.
I send you the textfile. Can you check what's wrong now?

arlo · November 12, 2017, 06:32:55 PM

Looks like the same problem -- the file has Western (Mac) encoding instead of UTF-8 encoding. I'm attaching the same file here with the encoding changed.

OBADE · November 12, 2017, 11:38:33 PM

Thanks so much. But i thought that running the file through a plain text editor (like windows Notebook) would clean up all kinds of (invisible) character-attachments?
I'm afraid i'll keep on running against this very same problem. Is there some kind of ancient tekst-editor which makes such that only plain tekst will be saved?

arlo · November 13, 2017, 08:58:28 AM

BBEdit has a "Zap Gremlins" function that removes strange invisible characters. I don't know if other applications would remove them automatically. The best option is to save the files as UTF-8 before importing.

OBADE · December 16, 2017, 05:48:42 AM

Argg... I'm still troubling. I've used all kinds of apps (onlne and offline) to encode the textfile, but they turn the text in a whole bunch of slashes and loose characters. I've tried all kinds of prehistoric texteditors to get rid of all the characters that are a problem. but nothing worked.
What can it be that my Excel just can't make it good in one move? It's 2016 Excel 64 bits. Could that be the problem?

And who has one more tip to get my problems over with? The problem is that the textfile for importing songs must be UTF-8 encoded. But when i Export from my Excel with the option UTP-8 encoded it just doesn't seem to do just that. Because in Setlistmaker I kepp getting the same error-message I got without the encoding.

Please, I need so desperately to have this working properly.

arlo · December 16, 2017, 09:25:14 AM

Can you post a screen shot showing the export settings you're using in Excel, then post the file that was generated with those settings?

OBADE · December 16, 2017, 11:49:12 AM

Hi Arlo, I'm so sorry that i have to bother you again.
the attachment is a PDF with all the menu's and messages from then"save as" procedure.
I'll post the textfile next.

OBADE · December 16, 2017, 11:49:56 AM

The textfile

arlo · December 16, 2017, 10:49:43 PM

In the "Opslaan als" menu, do you have a UTF-8 or UTF-16 option? That's how my version of Excel works. It makes more sense to have UTF-8 as an additional option on top of the tab-text option, but in my version, choosing UTF-8 first does make a file that is both tab-text and UTF-8.

If not, it seems that Excel is just not following the options you give it -- the file you posted isn't UTF -- so you might check with a Microsoft forum for clarification.

OBADE · December 17, 2017, 12:32:38 AM

Hi Arlo,

It's 9:29 Am here in Holland, a sunny Sundaymorning. At 1:00 I have to play at a Shopping Mole with a Christmas Market.
And thanks to you... this morning is Brighter than ever.

It was only that simple: i had to choose Unicode from the Save As menu.

Thanks so very, very much. I can go on now.
the text-file I send you was just small, but I have lots and lots of songs I can now finally upload in my pad.

Thank you and lots of succes with your ccompany. I recommend Setlistmaker to anyone I know.

Bye, Peter.

arlo · December 17, 2017, 08:23:00 AM

Okay, great! I wish I were in Holland right now and could go to your gig. :-)