:'(
1. I bought my copy of Setlistmaker.
2. Have put all my longtime treasured, Yellow-aged papersheets from my multomap into a Excel spreadsheet, following narrowly the instructions from this site.
3. Write the sheet into a textfile.
4. Put the .txt into my Google Drive (working on my Windows Laptop).
5. Got my Ipad and opened Google Drive.
6. Engaged the option "open file in Setlistmaker".
5. Opened up Setlistmaker on my Ipad.
6. Opened a database and choose the option "import from textfile"
7. Got the Error-message that file couldn't be openenen because of non-conforming characters (or other words like that...)
8. Disgraced Adèle by spelling her name without the "Accent Grave" and redo the whole charade.
9. Ending up with the same Error.
What did i do wrong?
Greetings Peter form Holland.
Please be sure to save the file with UTF encoding when you export it from Excel. That should fix it.
No, that didn't work either. But i'm afraid that there might be some earlier version of importSong.txt somewhere in the crypts of Setlistmaker. How can i get some kind of list of all the imported files in setlistmaker using my Ipad (so not by using ITunes)?
You can look at the Documents page in Set List Maker, and the import file should appear there, and you can view it or delete it from there.
Oké, i deleted everything and imported the textfile (which i saved with UTF encoding) once more. I imported it in setlistmaker, but loading songs from it gave the same error-message.
Can it be that i have to delete manually those non-text characters? But which are those?
Can you post your file and I'll try it? Or start a help ticket if you don't want to post it publicly:
https://helpdesk.arlomedia.com/arlomedia
here are the xls and the txt-file I made from it.
Hey Arlo,
Yes, this one i can load songs from. thanks.
But i wonder what i did wrong. In excel I choose "save as text (tab is separator)", next I choose as extra the weboption for coding the UTF-8 and pushed OK.
What did I miss?
I don't know -- it sounds like your version of Excel is different from mine. In my version, I choose File > Save As..., then set the Format to UTF-16 Unicode Text. (It really should be UTF-8, but that's not an option in my Excel version and the UTF-16 files have always worked for me.)
On my Mac, I can also use BBEdit to change the encoding of an existing file. On Windows, I've read that Notepad++ can do this.
Now i'm confused. You pick the unicode UTF-16 (or 8) in de "Save As"-box? (where you you can choose the type of file; xls, doc, csv, pdf, etc., and also txt)?
I thought that you have to go also to the box Extra->Weboptions->coding, and there you can select "Unicode UTF-8"? is that not correct?
I'm sure the commands are different in different versions of Excel. At that point it's really an Excel issue and I'm not an expert on that.
Oke, i'll figure that out (i hope :-\)
One last question, there are many kinds of .txt types you can choose from. Does it matter which?
I've tried all kinds of .txt types from the "Save as"-box and tried every Unicode coding-option (plane Unicode, Unicode (Big Endian), Unicode (UTF-8)) from my Excel 2010 and all lead to the same error in Setlistmaker (502).
Anyone else who encountered this problem? I'm willing to do some own investigations but i'm out of options now.
I guess that Excel won't give me relief. So I'm planning to do it the manual way.
Just preventing the characters that gives Setlistmaker the Hickups.
But which characters are those? Question marks, Asteriks, quotes, I guess, but which more? The Backslash not for sure because it has special meaning for Setlistmaker.
I'd love to have some list of no-go characters. Thanks in advance.
If it says UTF-8, I don't know why that wouldn't work. You could send me another of the files to check ... you can use the same help desk ticket you started yesterday. Even if Excel won't export as UTF, can you use BBEdit or Notepad++ to convert the file afterwards?
Question marks, asterisks and straight quotes are fine, but curly or "smart" quotes and accent marks would be a problem. You might also have some hidden characters in there, so it can be pretty hard to remove them all manually.
Hi Arlo,
that was the trick; just open the .txt in some basic tekst-editor, save and go for it. Thank you very much for your persistence.
:D :D :D
Greetings, Peter.
Okay, great.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
The textfile
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.
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.
Okay, great! I wish I were in Holland right now and could go to your gig. :-)