I’ve exported my refs with tab-delimited style, then opened that file in Excel. Works fine.
But, the columns are not labeled with field names. This is necessary for using the export for a pivot table, among other things.
Its easy to guess the field names for the exported data, but refs that don’t have any data get a blank cell. The refs are several types (journal, conference, etc.) so the columns are overloaded. I worked out most of the mapping – I entered the field name as the data, then exported that (see below).
* I did this for the two types I use most - conf paper and jrn article. Some fields are not in these types, which indicated with “?”
* Several fields at the end of the list that are apparently not exported at all.
* When a file is attached (or not) to the record, there is no difference in the output.
Here are my questions:
Is there anyway I can get a list of the field names with the output?
What are the names of the missing fields?
Is there an option to output the list in XML? Seems like this would be simplest.
What happened to the file name of the attached file?
You may want to look thru this thread: – I think the problem is that if you are exporting from different record types, the headings vary with record type. I seem to remember another similar thread, but I am not finding it.
The headings should probably be using the generic and not the record type specific headings? CrazyGecko may have a better grasp on this.
It seems you are exporting specific references (e.g., conference paper, journal article), however, the tab delimited output style relies on using the “Generic” field names (for the reason Leanne noted in her posting) instead of the reference type-specific names in facilitating the exporting process. Using generic field names makes exporting easy to do without having to deal/remember the field names unique to each reference type but as explained below there’s a bit more to consider.
There are 54 “generic” field names available in a reference template. The field names are renamed to fit specific reference types (e.g., Journal Article, Conference Paper). But not all 54 fields are needed or used for a given reference type.
Now the Tab Delimited Output Style’s template (see attached) displays only 39 fields. That’s why your exported file is “missing” 15 fields including the ones you’ve noted in your posting (’…Some fields are not in these types, which indicated with “?”…Several fields at the end of the list that are apparently not exported at all.") This can be fixed by modifying the template by adding the names of the missing field names (along with the tabs).
As to your 4 questions:
1. Is there anyway I can get a list of the field names with the output?
A: Until the Tab Delimited output style is fixed to include field names as column headers in the exported file you will need to do it manually.
3. Is there an option to output the list in XML? Seems like this would be simplest.
A: During the exporting process when you’re prompted to save the file, there’s an option “Save as type” which has an .XLM option (click the pull-down menu). But note that the generic template will need to adjusted first to incorporate the missing field names.
4. What happened to the file name of the attached file?
A. Hard to say. If you used the Tab Delimited Output style file (without modification), you might check the exported file to see what the last record was and if it was correctly imported into Excel. If the number of exported records match what was imported into Excel the missing file name might indicate a problematic record or export.
**Addendum: If some of your records have multiple keywords in the “Keywords” field which are separated by hard returns instead of semicolons this may be problematic as the Tab Delimited Output style seems to treat each keyword as a separate entry and code each to appear on a new line in the exported file instead of aggregating the keywords so they appear as a single unit within the “Keywords” field. A possible workaround may involve adjusting both the exported file’s coding and the output style’s template.
