[Updated.] Some of my smart readers very quickly created the spreadsheet I sought. And now I have the answer to my question: An employee in Atlanta sent his "I quit" e-mail to nearly 4,700 other employees -- and possibly many more. (Worldwide, there are about 31,000 employees.)
My original post: Several readers have forwarded an e-mail that includes thousands of employee names in the "to" field, formatted as follows: Hopkins, Jim; Smith, John; Jones, Mary and so on.
I'd now like to import these names into a spreadsheet, using the semicolons as a separator for each line. But I don't know how to accomplish this. I've saved the names to this Google document.
Earlier: At WUSA-TV, the "I quit" e-mail everyone's talking about.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
My original post: Several readers have forwarded an e-mail that includes thousands of employee names in the "to" field, formatted as follows: Hopkins, Jim; Smith, John; Jones, Mary and so on.
I'd now like to import these names into a spreadsheet, using the semicolons as a separator for each line. But I don't know how to accomplish this. I've saved the names to this Google document.
Earlier: At WUSA-TV, the "I quit" e-mail everyone's talking about.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
CHECK YOUR E-MAIL IN 10 MINUTES
ReplyDeleteAl-head forever; ditto, the Blue Bomb (?) crew. Gannettoids never win Pulitzers or have decent profits. Stop eating bananas, stop the stupidity.
I hope someone kicks out a 'reply all' that's worthy of a chuckle, at least.
ReplyDeleteWorking on it. Since it's delimited, it isn't hard to import into Excel.
ReplyDelete1. Cut and paste into Word.
ReplyDelete2. Search and replace semicolon-and-space with ^p (that's an end-paragraph)
3. Search and replace comma-and-space with ^t (that's a tab)
4. Search and replace ^p^t with nothing (that moves lines with just one entry -- those that aren't names -- to the other column.
5. Select everything.
6. Open Excel, new spreadsheet, click on the top-left corner to highlight all, paste, hit OK that it is not same size and shape.
7. Select the A on the top row, the whole column will light up. Ctrl-X (cut command).
8. Select the C on the top row, hit CTRL-V (paste command).
9. Click and hold on the B on the top row and drag over to the C column. Both columns should light up. Ctrl-X (cut).
10. Click and hold on the A on the top row and drag over to the B column. Both columns should light up. Ctrl-V (paste).
They should now be on their own line and ordered correctly. Spin through to check the work.
See, sportswriters aren't idiots after all.
Jim - I don't have Excel on this machine to give you the full instructions (via trial and error) but I found that when I called up your Google doc and highlighted some of the names there is an option when you right click to "Export to Excel." So if you have Excel try starting there and my bet is there will be several options available for saving the data.
ReplyDeleteCheck your email
ReplyDeleteIn the Ribbon select Data>>Text to Columns
ReplyDeleteDelimited>>Next
Semicolon>>Finish
Is that what you wanted?
Sent it.
ReplyDeletesent it
ReplyDeleteAnd you were a business reporter and editor for how long? Just open it in a text editing program, search and replace the semi-colons with paragraph marks, then open it in a spreadsheet program.
ReplyDeleteReally the list is probably must longer. Most of his recipients were distribution lists, which have hundreds of recipients apiece.
ReplyDeleteooh, somebody's got MS Office with a "ribbon..." I guess there is no need for the brute force method when their shop has them using something other than Office 97.
ReplyDeleteJim can you please post the content of the e-mail?
ReplyDeleteInternet Explorer 6 was good enough for 2001, it's good enough for us now!
ReplyDeleteTHE LAST TIME?
ReplyDeleteThis was weird. Most companies, unless you're a VP, you could never send an e-mail to that many people. There are controls to prevent that, in place for 15 years. A VP's admin would send out a goodbye message.
Then, again, consider the source. Banana, anyone?