Uploading Grid Data in Text Format

Grid Publisher accepts industry-standard, tab-delimited text files. For example:

where an arrow () indicates a tab character and a paragraph (�) indicates a line terminator.

• The first row in the file is a header that contains symbol names except that the first column (in this case "KEY") does not correspond to a symbol and can be any alphanumeric string.
• The second and subsequent rows are data values: string values or content object identifiers.
• Optionally enclose multiple-word phrases in double quote (") characters. This is not required but very helpful for readability.
• To include a double quote (") character in the string data, precede it with a backslash (\) character. For example:

  this is how to include a double quote: \"

• To include a backslash (\) character in the string data, precede it with a backslash (\) character.

  this is how to include a backslash: \\

• Use a standard character encoding such as UTF-8.

Note: If you see invalid characters in the grid, save the grid data file with explicit UTF-8 encoding and reload it. Some text editors, such as Notepad, save text with ANSI encoding by default, even when the text contains non-ANSI characters.

Creating the Grid Data File

You can use an external tool such as a text editor, a spreadsheet, or a database application to create the grid data file. For example, you can create the following spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel 2007:

To save the spreadsheet as a tab-delimited text file:

1. Select Office (button) > Save As > Other Formats
2. Save as type: Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)

   

   Tab-delimited text files saved by Excel 2007 do not enclose multiple-word phrases in double quote characters but tab-delimited text files saved by Excel 2003 do.