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There is an easy solution to your spreadsheet-importing
problems!
By Chris Borales, Product Manager
for Axiom
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA —
MicroStation portals are filled with users wanting to find
an easy, efficient method for importing Excel spreadsheets
and Word documents into their design files. As a result, these
portals are filled with just as many answers from other frustrated
users.
In desperate attempts to import spreadsheet data, I have
heard tales of users implementing backbreaking, mind-bending
methods in order to reproduce their spreadsheets in their
design files. Some MicroStation users have placed their trust
in a configuration variable or in a crude MDL application
created in a pinch by another MicroStation user. Some have
even gone so far as to fly in a congregation of Tibetan monks
to preside over the spreadsheet import. While the constant
chanting was a comfort to employees, lulling some of the more
lethargic to sleep, the monks were all for naught.
While using MicroStation's native Paste and Paste Special
functions, users often report that their spreadsheets and
Word documents become nothing like they used to be. What used
to be a beautifully-formatted spreadsheet ends up as a random
collection of text. Word documents with paragraph formatting
become large blocks of monolithic text. Whole words are dropped
so that entire text strings are no longer editable, only individual
letters. Oh the horror!
Enter Microsoft Office Importer
Since importing spreadsheets and Word documents into design
files is something that comes up regularly in most MicroStation
CAD shops, the need for a tool that consistently imports properly-formatted
spreadsheet and document data into MicroStation was apparent.
Axiom answered the call. And since Axiom has offered the Microsoft
Office Importer utility, it has become our second most
popular solution (after FileFixer).
Microsoft Office Importer's popularity is rooted in
the fact that it not only maintains Word document and Excel
spreadsheet formatting, but that it also links the imported
spreadsheet or document to the design file it was imported
in. This means that when a change is made to the spreadsheet,
the design file is automatically updated!
Also, Microsoft Office Importer users have the ability
to control all aspects of the symbology and formatting of
the spreadsheet or Word document before the data is pasted.
For example, a user can map specific Windows fonts to specific
MicroStation fonts or put imported text on a specific level
with specific symbology and border elements on other levels
with different symbology. This total control gives Microsoft
Office Importer users the ability to have their spreadsheets
or Word documents comply with their CAD standards automatically!
Updates galore!
Axiom's product development staff is constantly updating Microsoft
Office Importer to incorporate more features. Some of
the most recent enhancements include options to modify the
current symbology of imported spreadsheets or Word documents
and the ability to create named pairs of height and width
values. The newest version of Microsoft Office Importer
boasts features that were implemented in order to respond
to overwhelming customer demand.
Filled cells
Microsoft Office Importer can now import filled colored
cells from an Excel spreadsheet into a design file. This feature
now affords users of Microsoft Office Importer an even
greater depth of formatting than they had previously.
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| Filled cells in Excel. |
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| Filled cells in MicroStation imported using Microsoft
Office Importer. |
The other feature is the added ability to recognize the modification
of individual Excel sheet tab names. Sheet tabs include the
names of the individual sheets within a single Excel file.
Sheet tabs are displayed at the bottom left hand corner of
the spreadsheet.
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| Example of sheet tabs |
Previously, while Microsoft Office Importer recognized
these sheet tab names, if the name of a sheet tab was changed
mid-project Microsoft Office Importer would lose the
link between the Excel spreadsheet and design file. Now, within
Microsoft Office Importer's "Manage Import Link"
dialog, a user can specify the new name of the sheet tab and
update the existing link in MicroStation.
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| Microsoft Office Importer's "Manage
Import Link" dialog box |
Send the monks home!
Send the Tibetan monks back home, and pick up a copy of Microsoft
Office Importer! You will not be disappointed.
Call now!
For more information on Microsoft
Office Importer contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant
today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 9281 or e-mail 9281@axiomint.com.
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