Converting Inconsistent Label Format Files

In order to open label format files in AccuZIP6 they must be consistent. Each record must have the same number of lines. If each record does not have the same number of lines, use this technote to convert the file to a delimited text format.

1. Open the file in Microsoft Word.
2. From the File menu, choose Save As. At the Save As Type pull down menu, select Text Only (*.txt).
3. From the File menu, choose Close.
4. From the File menu, choose Open, then open the .txt file you've just created with Save As.
5. With the text file open and the data appearing as one column, you must figure out what character (or characters) separate each line (usually it's one paragraph mark) and what character separates each record (usually two paragraph marks in a row, though this is not always the case). Once you've figured this out, pull down the Edit menu to Replace.
6. Replace whatever separates records with a Manual Line Break. To do this, click on More, then choose Special, and find the Manual Line Break (Paragraph Mark is also in this selection of characters). In Find What: enter two paragraph marks. The symbol in word for a paragraph mark is ^p, so your find what will have ^p^p. In Replace With, enter a manual line break (^l).
7. Click Replace All.
8. When the Replace is finished, change Find What: to ^p and change Replace With: to a tab character, which is ^t.
9. Click Replace All.
10. When the Replace is finished, replace a Line Break (^l) with a paragraph character (^p).
11. Click Replace All.
12. Close the Find and Replace window.
13. Looking at your text file, your fields should be separated by tabs, and your records should be separated by paragraph marks. This is now a tab delimited text file, which is a format that AccuZIP6 can open. From the File menu, choose Save As. At the Save As Type pull down menu, select Text Only (*.txt).
14. Give the name of the file 8 characters or less, with no punctuation marks, though give the file a .txt extension.

This new file can now be opened in AccuZIP6 as Delimited Text!

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