[Plugin: WordPress Form Manager] CSV download creates unusable file

  • fogggin

    (@fogggin)


    14 years, 4 months ago

    When downloading data, I’ve tried selecting all of the options (All Entries including hidden, All Entries, etc.).
    I hit the blue “Download” button and then the “Click here to download” link that appears.
    After that, a prompt asks me to open or save the file as a Microsoft Excel CSV file. I save it to my local machine.
    When opening the file in Excel, a few problems are apparent:
    1) the first two or three characters are gibberish
    2) none of the fields are separated by commas
    3) the data is downloaded in two columns
    I also tried opening in Notepad, but the file is all gibberish.

    Has anyone else experienced this problem with CSV download? The FAQ and Tutorial do not provide troubleshooting hints.

    Thanks,
    Darlene

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-form-manager/

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • hoffcamp

    (@hoffcamp)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    Hey Darlene, the files use ‘tab’ as a separator, and the gibberish is supposed to signal that the file contains Unicode characters. What version of Excel are you using? Sorry about the problems! I know the plugin is fairly useless if you can’t export the data.

    Thread Starter fogggin

    (@fogggin)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    I’m using 2007.

    I was able to use Text-to-Columns to separate the data. These weird characters are printed only in the first cell: ÿþTimestamp

    Thanks for the help,
    Darlene

    hoffcamp

    (@hoffcamp)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    I don’t have 2007 unfortunately, and it works fine in 2010 and 2011 for mac. I’m surprised you would have to explicitly import the data into Excel though, you should be able to simply ‘open’ the file directly into Excel. Have you tried that as well? As in, right click on the file, select ‘open with’, then ‘Excel’, and it should recognize the file format. If not, or if you already tried that as well, then I don’t have any more advice, other than trying Open Office.

    Thread Starter fogggin

    (@fogggin)

    14 years, 3 months ago

    On my machine, the file is automatically associated with MS Excel (as an Excel CSV file) upon download, so no need to “open as”. There’s a serviceable workaround so I’ll just deal. Thanks for the help though.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘[Plugin: WordPress Form Manager] CSV download creates unusable file’ is closed to new replies.