Why does EasyPopulate break my HTML data tables.

[thebigkick]

In the v_product_description column I have a bunch of HTML table holding data about my product(s). When I push an upload of the .txt (Tab Delimited Text file) it seems to add a plethora of <br/> tags.

Could this be because I convert the file over the .xls format for editing then back to .txt?

Thanks.

[schoolboy]

Excel works in mysterious ways... I would bet that it is reformatting somewhere.

We have sometimes managed to "bypass" these issues by NOT saving the excel spreadsheet as a TXT file.

This is what we do.

1. CLEAN TEXT STRINGS
Make sure that the product description text (including embedded html) has NO line breaks. The string must all be one long "sentence". (ie NO line breaks or paragraph breaks).

2. OPEN UP CRIMSON EDITOR
When the spreadsheet is complete, open up CRIMSON EDITOR. Now you have both MS Excel open AND Crimson Editor open.

3. HIGLIGHT ALL MS EXCEL CELLS.
Drag your cursor over the whole spreadhseet (NOT unused rows or columns - just all those with the data)

4. CTRL+C (COPY)
COPY the data to your computer clipboard.

5. TOGGLE TO CRIMSON EDITOR
Then PASTE the contents into a blank Crimson File.

You should now have a clean tab-delimited TXT file.