Test thread for formatting text

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Hi,

I'm just trying to see if I can suck data in & out, either manually or automatically to see if form data can be more readable. If you have thoughts or comments, feel free to share them. I plan on just scraping data off the UOA/VOA forums to spur some ideas. Perhaps even a script or two can be created to make data input easier for people to post.Please bear with me as this will take some time. Thanks....Mike

Here at BITOG, is it possible to

1. Enable HTML and/or XML for certain board functions?
2. Increase the font size of the "CODE" section as it always shows up smaller and difficult to read?

Data pulled from this thread:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001923
Data sucked into Excel, then spit out (with a little massaging) to a PRN file, comma and spaces used for formatting. This works, but is time consuming.

code:

---

Mazda RX-8



Oil OEM Redline Redline Redline Redline Redline

Viscosity 5w20 5w20 5w20 5w20 5w20 5w20

Oil added 0 0 0 0 0 0

Miles on oil 1250 1764 1500 1500 3000 4000

Miles on unit 1250 3014 4520 6067 9166 13221

Date 12/13/2003 12/30/2003 2/9/2004 3/24/2004 6/4/2004 8/30/2004



Aluminum 9 5 5 10 6 6

Chromium 4 5 6 5 6 7

Iron 30 30 33 29 29 35

Copper 18 22 15 10 7 6

Lead 1 2 0 3 3 5

Tin 0 1 4 0 1 1

Moly 480 471 578 599 586 556

Nickel 1 1 1 1 1 1

Manganese 0 1 1 1 0 0

Silver 0 0 0 0 0 0

Titanium 0 0 0 0 0 0

Potassium 0 2 5 4 3 2

Boron 137 71 37 24 17 8

Silicon 42 28 21 17 15 15

Sodium 8 15 18 20 20 22

Calcium 1724 2421 2565 2841 2906 3394

Magnesium 5 6 7 6 6 6

Phosphorous 850 1015 1084 1077 1091 1222

Zinc 884 1236 1165 1236 1362 1371

Barium 1 1 0 0 0 0



SUS Vis@210C 50.3 50.9 53.4 54.1 54.4 58.5

Flashpoint F 335 325 340 370 395 400

Fuel 1.50% 1.50% 1.30% 0.5 0.5 0.5

Antifreeze 0 0 0 0 0 0

Water 0 0 0 0 0 0

Insolubles 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.2

---

 

[Gary Allan]

There has got to be an easier way. This is too annoying a problem to replace it with an equally cumbersome ritual to merely edit and display a very small file.

In virtually any other format than this lame Adobe ..you could just do a tape and paste.

btw-what is the magical feature of this format that makes it so appealing to authors ..and so hostile to readers?? I mean would .html format kill Blackstone or drown them in needlessly large files or somthing

I get frustrated at things like "unlimited" having to be assigned to fields in Access for alpha data to be valid ...

. Nothing, at this stage of the game, sould require that you jump through that many hoops.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Gary, you raise a good point--rather than trying to format things from the rear-end of the data process, have Blackstone (or others) format things in a PRN-type text file upon the front-end. This would faciliate a simple CODE, copy & paste, end CODE. No fancy scripting necessary. I wonder if Blackstone would go along with that idea...

Now, if we can make the font of the CODE section larger than it currently is...

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

---

Now, if we can make the font of the CODE section larger than it currently is...

---

Yes!! My babyboomer middle aged eyes are straining ..even my Varilux ® lenses are challenged to focus in on them.

My score of 9 standard deviations on the MMPI (MN Multiphase Personality Inventory) psychopatic deviant score (my nature doesn't like to accept rules) causes extreme frustration when there isn't a "way around" road blocks to desired goals. I've managed to get this far by figuring my way out of the box. In this situation ...I'm outgunned with my current inventory of mental resources.

Someone here must have the savvy and ability to share that knowlege with us that are challenged in this situation. By share ..I mean take the time to write out a noob based/oriented instruction that doesn't require already knowing the application.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well I got a host site ..but I don't know if they'll just let me hand out posts forever if the mods catch the scam.

This was within their bite limit.

Now this should be easily allowable by BITOG. They even use the same software as this other site.

 

[XS650]

Gary, nice looking results. My concern is that over time, hosting sites will dissapper and we will lose UOAs form BITOG. If they are entered as text, then they will be here as long as BITOG is here.

There are pdf to text converters that are supposed to maintain formatting. I haven't tried one and didn't see any free ones. One of the shareware versions was only $13, prices go up from there. I didn't see any freeware converters.

Adobe will convert pdf to text or html for you. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth though.

 

[Al]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ToyotaNSaturn:

code:

---

Mazda RX-8



Oil OEM Redline

Viscosity 5w20 5w20

Oil added 0 0

Miles on oil 1250 1764

Miles on unit 1250 3014

Date 12/13/2003 12/30/2003



Aluminum 9 5

Chromium 4 5

Iron 30 30

Lead 1 2

Tin 0 1

Moly 480 471

Nickel 1 1

Manganese 0 1

Silver 0 0

Titanium 0 0

Potassium 0 2

Boron 137 71

Silicon 42 28

Sodium 8 15

Calcium 1724 2421

Magnesium 5 6

Phosphorous 850 1015

Zinc 884 1236

Barium 1 1



SUS Vis@210C 50.3 50.9

Flashpoint F 335 325

Fuel 1.50% 1.50%

Antifreeze 0 0

Water 0 0

Insolubles 0.2 0.3

---

---

I just cut the above post down to 2 columns maybe I'll use this in the future.

I think it looks good

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I asked Blackstone to provide a Microsoft Word format version of my last UOA. They did, it's in RTF format. There's LOTS of coding in it. Rather than mucking around with coding, Here's how to make life a bit easier. You will need Microsoft Excel. This should also work A-OK on Microsoft Works' Spreadsheet. As a side note, the RTF file isn't easy to copy from with all the columns and such.

In a nutshell, here's what I was thinking...create a useable spreadsheet with the formatting that's in a pleasant & easy to decipher format, export the spreadsheet data to a pre-formatted TEXT only format, then copy that TEXT only data from Notepad, then paste it within our UOA posts here at BITOG. Detailed steps to make this work:

Step 1, Save this Excel File Template to your local computer.

Step 2, Overwrite all my data on the 2nd sheet with your data from Blackstone. If there is none of my own personal data, this step is the easiest.

Step 3, Now use the SAVE AS option to save as a "Formatted Text (Space Delimited).prn" file. Name it whatever you wish. You'll be prompted that you'll lose Excel formatting when saving in this Text-only format. That's OK. Just continue and save it.

Step 4, Open Notepad, Then FILE > OPEN, choose all files, then open the file you created in the previous step.

Step 5, Once that PRN file is open in Notepad, EDIT > Select ALL, then EDIT > COPY.

Step 6, come back to BITOG, then use the "Instant UBB Code Button" that says CODE. Then Paste what you copied into BITOG between the start of the CODE and the end of the CODE. This will assure proper spacing and readability:

code:

---

Year: 1996 1996 1996

Make: Saturn Saturn Saturn

Model: SL2 DOHC SL2 DOHC SL2 DOHC

Engine Size: 1.9L 4cyl 1.9L 4cyl 1.9L 4cyl

Total Mileage: 109,592 106,324

Fuel Type: Unleaded

Fuel Additives: none

Oil Use Interval: 3,268 7,472 1,721

Oil Type & Grade: Mobil 1 Mobil 1 Chevron Delo

Oil Type & Grade: 15w40

Oil Type & Grade: Havoline 5w30

Oil Grade: 15w-50 5w30 mix

Make-up Oil Added: none none

Oil Additvies Used: none

Crankcase Capacity: 4.5 qts

Sample Date 7/16/2004 5/24/2004 1/1/2004





Element PPM PPM PPM

ALUMINUM 2 3 1

CHROMIUM 0 1 0

IRON 9 28 3

COPPER 4 2 1

LEAD 1 1 0

TIN 2 3 1

MOLYBDENUM 60 71 34

NICKEL 0 0 0

MANGANESE 0 0 0

SILVER 0 0 0

TITANIUM 0 0 0

POTASSIUM 0 0 0

BORON 118 111 69

SILICON 5 8 4

SODIUM 4 4 1

CALCIUM 2,490 3128 2502

MAGNESIUM 13 17 6

PHOSPHORUS 944 797 914

ZINC 1,082 887 1071

BARIUM 0 0 0



cST @100c

SUS 210F 76.3

Flashpoint F 395

Fuel %
AntiFreeze % 0

Water % 0

Insolubles % 0.4

---

Please manipulate the spreadsheet to your liking as this is based on a Blackstone report.

[ October 20, 2004, 02:27 PM: Message edited by: ToyotaNSaturn ]

 

[Al]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ToyotaNSaturn:
I asked Blackstone to provide a Microsoft Word format version of my last UOA. They did, it's in RTF format. There's LOTS of coding in it. [/CODE]Please manipulate the spreadsheet to your liking as this is based on a Blackstone report.

---

Why didn't you just save it in another format like Word, Text Only, MS Dos etc. ???

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Saving it another plain text only format directly from the RTF/Word file, produces results that are much like extracting data out of a PDF. It's all in a single column.