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[rjm]

I use a custom nested field to specify the subject associated with my audiobooks and ebooks.

I want to export the field values to text so that I can share the subject list with friends who may want to borrow subsets of my books.

The list of subjects is very long and manually typing them is not a desireable option.

I tried exporting my entire library as xml in the hope that I could somehow isolate and edit the field values with some tool like Excel. Unfortunately Excel and Word report errors in the xml created by MC.

The only other solution I can think of is a screen grab with a tool like SnagIt.

Has anyone got any other ideas on how I can get the values of a field into editable text?

Thanks for your help.

[rjm]

Capturing a pane with SnagIt in text mode worked well.

[gappie]

have you tried to just select the fields, you are talking about a detailed list? , for instance with ctrl A, and then ctrl C. open something like excel or notepad and ctrl V. always worked for me. or am i missing something.

 
gab

[rick.ca]

Use File - Export Playlist and set the format to Text File. Open the result with Excel—letting it's Text Import Wizard import the file (i.e., tell it the file is "delimited" with "|").

[rjm]

have you tried to just select the fields, you are talking about a detailed list? , for instance with ctrl A, and then ctrl C. open something like excel or notepad and ctrl V. always worked for me. or am i missing something.

 
gab

Thanks for the tip. ctrl C does not seem to work on the contents of a pane. I could ctrl C the main window but then I end up with 200,000 lines which is not what I want. I only want one instance of each valid value stored in a field.

[rjm]

Use File - Export Playlist and set the format to Text File. Open the result with Excel—letting it's Text Import Wizard import the file (i.e., tell it the file is "delimited" with "|").

Thanks. I think I end up with the same problem as the previous suggestion.

Capturing a pane with SnagIt seems to be a good enough solution. Not very elegant but it works.

[rick.ca]

I think I end up with the same problem as the previous suggestion.

Using "Included Fields" = Only Visible Fields and "Output Range" = Selection in the Export Playlist dialog, you can restrict the export to just what's needed. This is also much more efficient than SnagIt, should you ever need to export 200,000 records.

[rjm]

Using "Included Fields" = Only Visible Fields and "Output Range" = Selection in the Export Playlist dialog, you can restrict the export to just what's needed. This is also much more efficient than SnagIt, should you ever need to export 200,000 records.

I tried this and I ended up with every file. What I want is one instance of each field value. It might be possible to come up with a smartlist to generate only one instance of each field value but I am not smart enough to figure out how to do this.

[rick.ca]

but I am not smart enough to figure out how to do this.

Maybe one of the smart people here take pity on us. But, in the meantime, I'm not letting this go until I've solved it with Excel...

1. In Rules for file display for the view, add the modifier Remove duplicates of [nested field]. The "remove duplicates" function will operate on the nested field as a whole, so different combinations of multiple values (e.g., the subject field is a nested keywords field, and multiple keywords are commonly assigned) will count as unique. I don't see a way to deal with that in MC, but it can be handled in Excel without much difficulty...

2. Export a playlist as text, and import it into Excel—as described previously.

3. In Excel, delete all columns but the one with the nested field data. If there are items with multiple values, those values will be delimited by semicolons, so...

4. Save the file as text, close and re-import it as text, this time setting the delimiter as ";".

5. Multiple values will now be separated into additional columns. Cut & paste the contents of these additional columns to the end of the first column. Resort the first column. In a normal situation, this column will now have many duplicates. To remove them...

6. Select the column, select Data - Filter - Advanced filter, and set Unique records only. This will filter the list in place. You may then copy & paste the result wherever you like.

7. Optional: If you prefer the different levels of the nested values to be separated into columns (i.e., rather than "Level1\Level2\..."), save the file as text, close and re-import it as text, this time setting the delimiter as "\". The Autofilter feature could then be used to filter the results. This would be an excellent way to present the list if it is very long.

[DiiPii]

thanks for this thread........was just trying to do same thing (export view to text file) and came accross this.......File - Export Playlist  worked for me (thanks for taking the time to post Rick)