### Importing an RTF File

A Rich Text File (RTF) is a cross-platform text document that supports textual data formatting. Many third party tools export measurement data as an RTF file. The rtf option allows you to import those data files into your database.

1. Once you have an appropriate rtf file, on the Choose a data file screen of the wizard, choose the rtf option, click Browse, and select the rtf file. Click Next.

2. On the Customize the data 1 screen, choose whether or not the first row contains field names. If you marked that check box then the import wizard will treat the first row as header data. Click Next.

3. On the Customize the data 2 screen, use the available tools to match columns in the RTF file with required column names understood by the database or with trace fields.

1. To do this, select a column to map from Original column list.

2. In the Map to area, choose one of these three options depending on what columns you want mapped:

- Fixed column - This refers to a fixed column of data in the database.

- Trace field - This is used to track part-specific data that may change from part to part. If you choose Trace field, you will need to give that column of data a trace field name.

- Skip - This cause Datapage+ import wizard to ignore a column of data.

3. Click Set to associate the original column with the specified database column or trace field or to skip the selected column. In the preview window, the column headers text will change to indicate what you have mapped for each column of data.

4. Continue selecting columns until all the desired columns are mapped. These columns must be "set":

- These three column: Part, Axis, and Measured

- One of these columns: FeatureName or DimensionName

- One of these: one DateTime column or two columns, Date and Time.

4. If needed, use the Advanced button to perform column operations. These include adding new columns, deleting columns, and splitting and merging existing columns. See "Performing Advanced Column Operations Below".

5. If you want to store these settings as a template, click the Save button. Datapage+ will default to your current settings the next time you perform an RTF import.

6. Click Finish to import the data. The Performing Operation... screen shows details of the import process. Once this finishes, click Cancel to close the wizard. The imported data will then be available for selection from within Datapage+.

Note: If the Finish command fails to complete due to non-existing columns not being "set", see the "Performing Advanced Column Operations" below to add and set these columns.

Performing Advanced Column Operations

The database expects a certain number of columns and columns containing specific data. If your import file does not contain the necessary information, you may need to use column operation tools to add, merge, or split columns to come up with the needed column types. These tools are available by clicking the Advanced button from the Customize the data 2 screen during the RTF import wizard. This opens the Column Operation dialog box:

Depending on what you select this dialog box changes to include additional controls.

Add - This button changes the Details area of the dialog box to read "Add a new Column Operations". This lets you add new columns through certain operations.

Type - This drop-down list contains these column operations:

Const - This operation constructs a new column. For example, if you needed to create your own Date column, you could type "Date" in the Name box and then select the %CurrentDateTime% variable from the Data list.

Name - The name of the column.

Data - The type of data the field should contain. Currently only the %CurrentDateTime% variable is supported. You do not have to select an item from the Data list. You can leave it blank to create an empty column that you can map or set to a needed column type.

Merge - This operation creates a new column by appending column 2 onto column 1 with the linker character in between the data.

Column1 - The first column

Column2 - The second column

Linker - The character used to link the data together. You can later split the columns by this character if needed.

SplitBySeparator - This operation creates new columns by splitting a single column at the defined separator character, resulting in two or more additional columns. For example, if a field in your column contained a string of characters like this ABC123-DEF456 and you typed - as the separator character, the software would split the string at the - resulting in two fields of data containing ABC123 and DEF456.

Column - The column to split.

Orientation - This defines whether or not the separator is searched for from string's left side or from its right side.

Separator - This defines the character location at which the software will split the data.

SplitByCharCount - This operation creates new columns by splitting a single column at a specified number of characters, resulting in two additional columns. For example if a field in your column contained a string of characters like this ABC123-DEF456 and you typed 5 for the number of chars with an Orientation of left, the software would count five characters from the left and split the data at that spot. The new columns would contain ABC12 and 3-DEF456 respectively. If you set the Orientation to right, instead, the software would count from the right and would get EF456 and ABC123-D respectively.

Column - The column to split.

Orientation - This defines whether or not the characters are counted from the right or from the left.

Separator - This defines the number of characters to count for the splitting location.