Import Text into Excel...

[blackhalo]

Hi guys, I know there's some clever database people around here...this is killin' me.

I've written all my meta titles, meta descriptions and page/body descriptions in an HTML editor (not tables, just formatting tags like <strong>, <br>, etc)...
I'm trying to get this information into an Excel spreadsheet so I can upload through EasyPopulateAdvanced.

My data is written vertically (as a human might do), so I'm having trouble getting it to import properly.
I need vertical text to import horizontally (as required by EasyPopulateAdvanced).

By "vertical" I mean, each 'section' of my data is written downwards:

<meta title>
<meta description>
<product title>
<page description>


It's NOT written "horizontally":

<meta title><meta description><product title><page description>


EPA requires each of these sections to be contained in one row, with each section in it's own column (one product per row)...
but since I don't write all my data in ONE LINE, I'm having trouble getting it imported properly.

I really don't want to edit my data so it's all on one line...that makes it impossible to edit later.
Not to mention it's completely against intelligent human nature!!

I'm sure I'm not the first person to run into this problem,
but I can't seem to discover a method that works properly.

I really don't want to copy/paste 3000 lines manually...again.
So does anyone have any secret (powerful) apps that import text into Excel?

It would be great if Excel's import wizard gave more control over the parsing...
I need to take vertical text blocks and place them horizontally.

I'm sure I've lost everyone by this point...

[blackhalo]

Ok, so "suicide" is now one of my options...this is ugly, I hate Excel.

After trying even more roundabout ways to accomplish my task (including formatting the data into full html tables and importing),
I'm thinking that XML might be the way to do this.

I just read something about "mapping" xml tags to cells...
this is all I'm looking for, a simple mapping system so I can tell Excel which <meta> goes into which cell....3000 times.

So before I venture too deeply in this direction, fail, then kill myself...
can anyone advise on my new choice of self-oppression?

Have I finally seen the light, is this why XML is now a brand name?
Could it really be, there's a relatively simple code that allows some control when importing data into Excel?!?!?

If this isn't so...goodbye cruel world...Microsoft, I'll see you in hell.

[blackhalo]

For posterity...the answer is a resounding "YES!!"

XML is the answer (to the universe).

Thank god, death is not the answer...W3C is the answer.