How to export paragraph text fields

I have a database of almost 700 records in Pan 6 which includes an important Notes field containing paragraphs. However, it is not exportable into another app (spreadsheet or database) retaining paragraphs. Apparently it does import into Pan X with paragraphs. A year ago I emailed with Jim who assured me that it would be possible to export from Pan X and retain paragraphs. I am trying out Pan X and so far it does not export, say to Excel, except as one long jumble of text with no returns.

I have watched a lot of the PanX videos but not anything about exporting a field containing paragraphs. I did look in Help and it said ­­“When your Panorama 6 databases are converted to Panorama X, all Auto-Wrap Text objects are converted to Text Display objects with the mode set to Literal . Panorama 6 Text Display SuperObjects become Text Display objects with the mode set to Formula .”

This is over my head. Could someone please tell me before I commit to a PanX subscription if/how I can export and retain paragraphs? Other than this problem, Pan X looks very cool.

I did have some success with exporting from Pan 6 if I added quotes before and after the text in a field. It should not be needed, but if it works, how can I automate that in PanX?

The usual trick is to replace those paragraph marks in your Panorama field with a rarely used character e.g. “•” or — maybe better — with a vertical tab. Then you are able to export your data without unwanted new lines and can — if necessary — easily revert the character change later on in Excel.

I tried that but couldn’t find a character for paragraph that worked. Is there one? Not sure what you mean by “unwanted new lines.”

The paragraph character is chr(13). Maybe there are LF (line feed) characters as well.

If you export data as text, you use tabs (TSV) or commas (CSV) as delimiter of fields. A paragraph mark is usually interpreted as end of a record. So when Excel imports your Notes cell containing paragraph marks it will see each paragraph as a separate record.

As I re-read your question, I would recommend you try the Text Export wizard in Panorama X. You can replace characters on the fly during the export, or do calculations, or use specific formats for any exported field, and you can save all your export settings as a reusable template. Ah, and you will see the result of your edits immediately in a Preview area.

When Panorama X exports data it normally converts embedded carriage returns into vertical tab characters. Many programs will interpret the vertical tab character as a line break when importing, for example I believe Numbers will do that (and Panorama itself does this). It sounds like Excel does not do this.

Have you tried exporting the data in CSV format? I think that Excel will properly import line breaks in CSV format. In Panorama X, just choose File>Export>Text (CSV) to export in this format.

How do I find chr(13)?

I don’t see any wizards and Help doesn’t recognize the word. How do I find the Text Export Wizard? Yes, I did use Text Export/CSV. It shows up in a generic spreadsheet (not Excel) with one record per line. If I format the Notes field with “Word Wrap,” the text stays in its cell but without paragraphs. What is a “vertical tab character”? There must be some carriage return symbol that I can search and replace, no?

There seems to be a possibility thru “Custom Text Export” where some paragraphs survive in a word processor.

Doesn’t anyone else ever want to export and retain paragraphs?

I learned long ago that carriage returns in a data cell cause problems. This is from the Formulas & Programming.pdf under Help in Panorama 6. There is more juicy info than this in there! : )

If you are manually exporting data from Panorama (using the Save As command, see “Exporting a Text File” on page 105 of the Panorama Handbook) and want the carriage returns converted to vertical tabs, make sure the Tabs w/o quotes option is turned on, and the Output Patterns option is turned off.

It’s at File>Export>Custom Text Export. This used to appear in a Wizard menu in older versions of Panorama, and people (including myself sometimes) still refer to it as a wizard sometimes. Sorry about that.

What is a “generic spreadsheet”? Did you try importing the text file generated with Text Export/CSV into Excel?

FYI, Jeff’s advice is for Panorama 6, not Panorama X.

I know all three: CR, LF and VT can be within a data cell and visualized therein as vertical white space — I’ve put all three there both intentionally and unintentionally at times. I understand how to manipulate them. I suppose there could be special cases preferring one over another when doing I/O to/from some other programs, but are there PanX reasons to prefer using there one, or two, over the other(s) as a general practice? I’m trying to learn good habits.

I thought she was exporting from Panorama 6 and importing the exported data to Panorama X but the carriage returns were a problem.

Her first question indicated she wants to export from Panorama X to Excel.

Yes, I was asking about exporting outside of PanX. I see that I have a lot to learn about the normal working of PanX but that will take time and I hope will be do-able for me, a novice. For now, I’d like to know if/how paragraph fields can be exported to another database or app, for instance Excel or another spread sheet. What if Panorama ceases to exist someday? How would people convert to another app if they have paragraph fields? Or won’t it be possible? I noticed that in Pan6 if I put quotes at the beginning and end of the text field, paragraphs would be retained. How can I do that automatically?

Guess that’s what happens when you delete a bunch of emails, then come in at the middle of thread. My bad.