Custom Import: Specify Article Delimiters Dialog Box

This is the second step of the Custom Import Wizard. You now need to specify how different articles are separated from each other in files which use this custom import format. The options in this step vary slightly depending on your choices in the previous step. Your sample file is displayed in the Sample File Preview pane for your reference.

Select the Back button to return to the previous step of the wizard. Select the Next button to go to the next step of the wizard. Select Cancel to return to the Manage Custom Formats Dialog Box and lose any changes you have made.

Start of Each Article Is Delimited by

Specify how the beginning of each article is marked. This setting works closely with the setting for the end delimiter. See below for some examples of when you might use certain start / end pairs. Note that the beginning of the file is not necessarily the beginning of an article.

•	If None is selected, no special marker indicates the beginning of an article. Selecting this makes the beginning of the file also the beginning of the first article.

•	If Start Marker or Start Tag (for formats organized by tags) is selected, a text label indicates the beginning of an article. Enter or paste the text marker or tag in the box to the right. The first start marker may or may not be at the beginning of the file.

End of Each Article Is Delimited by

Specify how the end of each article is marked. This setting works closely with the setting for the start delimiter. See below for some examples of when you might use certain start / end pairs. Note that if the end of the file is encountered while reading an article, it is always treated as the end of the article.

•	If None is selected, no special marker indicates the end of an article. All text is included in the current article until the start delimiter for the next article or the end of the file is found.

•	If Blank Line is selected, any blank line indicates the end of an article. Any text below a blank line is ignored for this article. Use this option with care if blank lines may be inside your article's content.

•	If Page Break is selected, any page break (also known as a "form feed") indicates the end of an article. Any text below a page break is ignored for this article.

•	If End Marker or End Tag (for formats organized by tags) is selected, a text label indicates the end of an article. Enter or paste the text marker or tag in the box to the right.

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If Beginning of Field is selected, then when the beginning of a certain field in the next article is found, the end of the article is marked. Select the appropriate field from the drop-down menu. This option is only available if the basic file structure is Labels or Tags. To change the basic file structure, select the Back button.

•	If Fixed Number of Lines is selected, then each article always uses a specific number of lines. Enter the number of lines in an article in the box to the right. This option is only available if the basic file structure is Lines. To change the basic file structure, select the Back button.

Sample File Preview

Your selected sample text file is displayed. You may copy text from the sample file into the Start Marker or End Marker edit boxes. Simply highlight the desired text, and copy it to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl-C. Paste it by placing the cursor in the appropriate edit box and pressing Ctrl-V. Press Ctrl-Z to undo.

Unprintable characters, such as tabs, may appear as small boxes:

Examples of Start / End Delimiter Pairs

If your files are formatted like this...

Then set the delimiters like this...

Only one article is in each file.

Set both the start and end delimiters to None.

Articles are separated by blank lines.

Set the start delimiter to None and the end delimiter to Blank Line.

The beginning of each article is marked. For example, each article starts with the label "Article:".

Set the start delimiter to Start Marker and the end delimiter to None. In this example, the start marker text is "Article:".

The beginning of each article is marked with the label "Article:". But there is information after the first blank line that you want to discard.

Set the start delimiter to Start Marker and the end delimiter to Blank Line. In this example, the start marker text is "Article:".

Articles are separated by short dashed lines (------). No lines appear at the beginning or end of the file.

Set the start delimiter to None and the end delimiter to End Marker. In this example, the end marker text is "------".

Each article is exactly 80 lines long. The second article starts at line 81.

The basic file structure should be Lines. Set the start delimiter to None. Set the end delimiter to Fixed Number of Lines and enter "80".

Each article always begins with the same field, which is clearly marked. For example, each article starts with the date, labeled "Date:".

The basic file structure should be Labels or Tags. Set the start delimiter to None and the end delimiter to Beginning of Field. In this example, select the field "Date" from the drop-down menu.

Each article is delimited with tags, such as <note> and </note>.

The basic file structure should be Tags. Set the start delimiter to Start Tag and enter "<note>". Set the end delimiter to End Tag and enter "</note>".