If you want something less techie than Perl, try this, using Word's ability to search-replace non-alphanumeric characters: 1. Pop the text into Word. Save the file under another name in case you mess up. 2. Using search-and-replace, change all instances of 01301 to 01301&^&^ (or any other string that would not show up in the data file) 3. change all (413)<space> to (413)<no space> 4. Change all remaining spaces to commas 5. Change all paragraph returns to commas put ^p into the Find box and make sure the p is lower-case) 6. Change all &^&^ back to ^p 7. Scan the file for any tweaks you need, like changing ,, to just one , 8. Save as text Whole thing should take about three minutes. Shel Horowitz - "The Transformpreneur"(sm) ________________________________________________ Watch (and please share) my TEDx Talk, "Impossible is a Dare: Business for a Better World" *http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809 <http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809>** <http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809>* (move your mouse to "event videos") Contact me to bake in profitability while addressing hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change Twitter: @shelhorowitz * First business ever to be Green America Gold Certified * Inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame http://goingbeyondsustainability.com http://transformpreneur.com mailto:shel at greenandprofitable.com * 413-586-2388 Award-winning, best-selling author of 10 books. Latest: Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson) _________________________________________________ On Sat, Oct 21, 2017 at 7:34 AM, David Greenberg <david.greenberg3 at gmail.com > wrote: > I have a hard copy list of names, addresses and phone numbers. I can scan > to PDF and then copy and paste to a text editor (BBEdit) or other file. I > then need to manipulate the text so that I end up with a csv file that can > be opened by a spreadsheet program. Tools that I have at my disposal > include BBEdit (with Grep), a MAMP stack, NeoOffice (Mac version of > OpenOffice) and FileMaker. > > Input looks like this: > > John Doe > (413) 111-1111 > 123 First St Greenfield 01301 > Jane Smith > 456 So Main Ln Greenfield 01301 > Jane Ann Smith > (413) 222-2222 > 78 Main Ct Greenfield 01301 > > Note that all addresses will include 'Greenfield 01301' and, *if *the > data includes a phone number, it will start with '(413)'. > > Output should look like this: > > John,Doe,(413) 111-1111,123 First St,Greenfield,01301 > Jane,Smith,,456 So Main Ln,Greenfield,01301 > Jane Ann,Smith,(413) 222-2222,78 Main Ct,Greenfield,01301 > > Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks. > > David > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20171021/d083cc7f/attachment.html