Exporting from Excel and Importing into Tap Forms

[Brendan]

Hi,

One of my customers put together this excellent step-by-step guide on how to export a CSV file from Excel and import it into Tap Forms. Thanks to Matt Gentle for this very helpful guide. Note, I’ve edited it to make file names and paths more generic and platform agnostic.

Step 1 – Exporting the data from Excel

1. Load Excel and open “My Excel File.xlsx”
2. Select the sheet you wish to export
3. Select “File”, then “Save As”
4. Change “Save as type” to “CSV (Comma delimited)”
5. Change filename to “My File.csv”
6. Click “Save”
7. Excel will give you a warning saying “The selected file type does not support multiple sheets” – click “OK”
8. Excel will then give you another warning saying “may contain features that are not compatible with CSV format” – click “Yes”
9. Then quit Excel – you will get a message about saving the current file, click “No”
10. Now, navigate in the Finder or Windows Explorer to where you saved the file.
11. You should see a file called “My File.csv” (you may not see the .csv bit on the end however if you’re not showing file extensions)
12. Right click on that file and choose “Copy”

Step 2 – Enabling the FTP server on your iPhone

1. Turn on iPhone and go to Settings
2. Click “Wi-Fi” and turn it on if you don’t already have Wi-Fi turned on.
3. Select your Wi-Fi network and enter your password if required.
4. Return to the home screen and load Tap Forms
5. Click the “Files” tab at the bottom of the screen
6. Then click on the power button where it says “ftp server off”
7. Make a note of the FTP server address it gives you (something like “ftp://192.168.0.5:8021”)

Step 3 – Copying the exported data to your iPhone (Windows PC)

1. Then on your PC hold the Windows Key and press R – the Run dialogue should pop up
2. In the text box enter the word “explorer” followed by a space and then the ftp server address from the iPhone (e.g. “explorer ftp://192.168.0.5:8021”) and click OK (not including the quotation marks)
3. A window should open showing two folders, one called “Imports” and one called “Exports”
4. Double click on the “Imports” folder
5. Finally, right click and choose “Paste”
6. The file has now been copied to your iPhone!

Step 3 – Copying the exported data to your iPhone (Mac)

1. Then on your Mac launch your favourite FTP client (Cyberduck is recommended)
2. Click the connect icon and then enter the ftp server address from the iPhone (e.g. “192.168.0.5”) and enter 8021 into the port field. Also click on the “Anonymous” checkmark
3. A window should open showing two folders, one called “Imports” and one called “Exports”
4. Double click on the “Imports” folder
5. Finally, drag your file from the Finder into the Imports folder window in Cyberduck.
6. The file has now been copied to your iPhone!

Step 4 – Importing the data into Tap Forms

1. OK, back to the iPhone and click on “Forms” at the bottom of the screen in Tap Forms
2. Now click the “+” icon in the top right corner
3. Then click “New” in the top right corner
4. Then click in the Form Name box and give it a name like “Credit cards” or whatever makes sense for your form. Click “Save” in the top right corner
5. Now click the “action menu arrow” icon in the top right
6. On the action sheet menu that appears choose “Import Records”
7. It will now show you the file we copied across from your Mac or PC
8. Tap that and then tap the green “Import” button
9. Tap “OK” on the “Import Complete” message and you will be returned to the “Select a Form” menu
10. Tap “Cancel” in the top left corner and you will now be done!

Thanks again to Matt Gentle for providing this step-by-step guide. And also thanks to Colin Davies for forwarding this on to me.

[Author]

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