I am hoping that the advice XmPie has provided has worked for you.
In the event that others are experiencing the same issues, without resolve, here are some tips:
Just know, that saving your file in a non-excel format does not clear out the proverbial spider webs.
For whatever reason, Excel seems to keep in place soft returns.
Simply looking at the file, will not reveal multiple line entries in one cell.
Re-saving the file in CSV will not strip out all non-printable characters, either.
When you open up your re-saved "CSV" file, do a search for "control-j" character.
And replace the non-printable character with a space.
That would re-mediate one possible gremlin.
Me personally, I would look for EOT, or EOF characters.
How you would go about that, I would defer to your data person.
Ultimately, he or she would open up your text version file in a real editor.
And not "note-pad" - and screen for ASCII value control codes.
Here is some guidance as to what to keep...
Values to screen for and to keep:
ASCII decimal 32 thru 126 (126 is a ~)
ASCII decimal 127 is the DEL, and I can't think of a reason to keep it.
All others should be removed, as they aren't considered "printable" characters or belong to the extended character set.
If screening out non-printable and the extended character set works, then its time to re-introduce the extended characters. Extended ASCII are 128 thru 255. Repeat your data-cleansing, from the beginning - leaving the extended characters in place. If you encounter problems, then one of the extended characters is at issue.
As an aside, being old school, and that it is possible that your file might have been mainframe based, I would also screen for EBCDIC control codes, using the same hex editor. Files downloaded from a mainframe, to a PC, may also have embedded EBCDIC hex converted to ASCII, and may have non-predictable behaviors when loaded into your program.
Best Regards,
Ted Frimet
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Theodore Frimet
Mail Shop Coordinator
Kalnin Graphics, Inc.
Jenkintown PA
215-887-6970
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-17-2017 10:23 AM
From: Kristen McKiernan
Subject: XM Pie Questions
Doug,
I have reached out to our executive contacts at XMPie to see if they can offer any additional suggestions or contacts for you to assist.
In the interim, depending on the original file type, saving the file as a simple *.txt (Tab delimited) or *.csv (Comma delimited) will strip out any formulas or other characters that may be causing the program to crash. These may be simple suggestions you have already tried. I will stay in touch as I hear back.
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Kristen McKiernan
President
AccuZIP, Inc.
Atascadero CA
800-233-0555
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-15-2017 06:32 PM
From: Douglas Carlile
Subject: XM Pie Questions
If anyone is using XMPie for their VDP, we have a question.
We have used XMPie for the last 8 – 10 years for VDP and have had good results. We are now trying to use a very LARGE file with about 400 fields per record. The number of records is not large, only about 10,000. Our problem is when we try to load the file into XMPie, XMPie crashes. We have sent the file to them and get answers and suggestions, but the file still crashes the program.
If anyone has experience with XMPie (or different VDP programs) and long files like this one, we would like your advice, suggestions or sympathy. If we can make it work, we have a new customer. Help Please!
Thanks,
Doug Carlile
President / CEO
Professional Print & Mail, Inc.
2818 E Hamilton Avenue
Fresno, CA 93721
559/237-7468
<maskemail>dcarlile@...</maskemail>