Hello;

I have an excel document that I am using a a tab-delimited file for
InData. InData will allow me to populate an Adobe InDesign document,
using exel. (or another tab-del. file).

What I want to do, is force Excel to cut-off the data in the cell after
a certain # of characters. Not a whole lot either, the # would be
close to 30.

Does anybody have an idea if and how Excel would accomplish this?

THANK YOU!

You may use the LEFT formula in a separate column:
=LEFT(A1,#)
where # is the number of characters you want. You can then export that
column instead of the original one, or copy/paste values over the original.

Hope this helps,
Miguel.

" wrote:

Hello;

I have an excel document that I am using a a tab-delimited file for
InData. InData will allow me to populate an Adobe InDesign document,
using exel. (or another tab-del. file).

What I want to do, is force Excel to cut-off the data in the cell after
a certain # of characters. Not a whole lot either, the # would be
close to 30.

Does anybody have an idea if and how Excel would accomplish this?

THANK YOU!

You may be able to accomplish what you want by using a "helper" cell and a
formula to limit the amount of text you are passing to InDesign. For
example, you have your text in column A and set up column B as a helper
column. Beginning in cell B1, type =Left(A1,#) (# is the number of
characters, including spaces, you want your data to contain), then copy down.
Then, Copy column B and Edit Paste Special and select Value over the data
in Column B (this will eliminate the formula).

" wrote:

Hello;

I have an excel document that I am using a a tab-delimited file for
InData. InData will allow me to populate an Adobe InDesign document,
using exel. (or another tab-del. file).

What I want to do, is force Excel to cut-off the data in the cell after
a certain # of characters. Not a whole lot either, the # would be
close to 30.

Does anybody have an idea if and how Excel would accomplish this?

THANK YOU!

If you can define which Excel columns are exported into Indata, you
might insert a column next to the column that contains the data you
wish to parse. For instance, if you want to show only partial account
numbers that currently reside in column B, insert a new column C and
use a formula to parse the data in Column B. The relevant formulas are
MID() which allows you to specify the start and stop column of a
string;
LEFT() which returns a number of characters (that you define) starting
from the left of the string;
RIGHT() which returns a number of characters starting from the right of
the string.

Please post a sample of "Before" and "after" data, and we can help you
determine the best way to approach the result.