Saving BBCode forum messages

All suggestions about TPFC should be posted here. Discussions about changes to TPFC will also be carried out here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Saving BBCode forum messages

#1 Post by webfork »

This file is: This is a quick way on how to effectively archive your PFW messages. I'm sure this is detailed elsewhere but whatever.

Background: There are several reasons to archive your messages, but I do it frequently because I hit the 200 total message cap on our forums about once every 6 months. Part of being moderator.

Requirements: Excel. I'm sad to say I couldn't figure out how to do it using LibreOffice. It's import program couldn't seem to grab the tables properly. Suggestions welcome.
  1. Goto the messages page. Here on PFW, it's at https://www.portablefreeware.com/forums ... lder=inbox
  2. Scroll down to the bottom and select "Mark all"
  3. Also at the bottom of the page, select "Export as CSV" and choose "Export as CSV (Excel)" from the drop down menu.
  4. Click the "Export this view" button
  5. Save the file a folder. I usually name it sequentially attached to the day's date so if it was new years day: "2018-01-01-messages.csv"
  6. Open the file in Excel and auto-expand columns A, B, and C to the correct size by clicking on their cell borders

    Image
  7. For column E (the message section), expand the cell to fill the remaing space on the screen
  8. Select the column and initiate "word wrap". It should look something like the file below:
Image

Follow these steps for pages 2, 3, 4, etc. of your message list. You can of course add them to the existing spreadsheet or save them separately.

Now you've got an easy to read, easy-to-search message archive.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Saving BBCode forum messages

#2 Post by webfork »

Ugh. Almost immediately I found a better way:
  1. From the "Export as CSV" drop-down, select "Export as XML"
  2. Open in Excel and, when prompted select "Open as an XML table"
So much cleaner, faster, and doesn't get confused by weird delimiters (e.g. a tab, comma, or semicolon supposed to represent a separate cell).

Got the idea here: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/con ... technique/

Post Reply