HTML into Excel - help needed

[msanger]

I've volunteered to pull names of off Fundrace for our local democractic committee. The good news is that I think this is the first time we in Virgninia are really working on GOTV efforts.

The bad news is that hand entering the data is really tedious.

I just know there has to be some way to cut and paste the charts from www.fundrace.org into excel - maybe with just a little hand editing. The really bad news is I don't what this way is. Any help would be very appreciated, and would help Virginia go blue.

Thanks.

[Nimrod]

1. Worked with Excel a LONG time

If you just need the raw data, I generally find it's easiest to paste the data in plain text form and format it into columns using the Data->Text to Columns menu command.

[msanger]

2. the problem is the pasting

The data is on the web in columns, but when I cut and paste it, it comes out all jumbled - with no logic I can see to how it is formated. So I'm thinking some kind of special cut and paste that keeps the column formating might be the best best.

But I don't know how one would do that.

[NMDemDist2]

3. did you try the "paste special" command?

it gives you more options on how to handle the formatting

good luck

the other option is to see if you can "export" the data from html


select your chart and look under "file" and see if there is an "export" option

here's another option from excel help

About getting data from a Web page
Web pages often contain information that is perfect for analysis in Microsoft Excel. For example, you can analyze stock quotes in Excel using information that comes directly from a Web page. Depending on your needs, you can retrieve data that is refreshable (that is, you can update the data in Excel with the latest data on the Web page) or you can get data from a Web page and keep it static on the worksheet.

Use a Web query to get data that's refreshable

With a Web query, you can retrieve data such as a single table, multiple tables, or all of the text on a Web page and analyze it by using the tools and features in Excel. With the click of a button, you can easily refresh the data with the latest information from the Web page. For example, you can retrieve and update stock quotes from a public Web page, or a table of sales information from a company Web page.



A Web query can retrieve the data on a Web page and return it to Excel for analysis.

Copy and paste static data or a refreshable query

You can use familiar copy and paste commands to bring the data from a Web page into an Excel worksheet. When you paste Web page data into Excel, you can keep the data static or make it refreshable by clicking Paste Options and clicking Create Refreshable Web Query.

Export data from Microsoft Office Web Components

From the browser, you can export data from interactive spreadsheets and PivotTable lists by using the Export to Excel toolbar button. For more information, see Microsoft Office Web Component Help for PivotTable lists or spreadsheets.

Open an HTML, MHTML or XML file

You can open any HTML file, MTHML file, or well-formed XML file in Excel by using the Open command on the File menu.

When you open an HTML or MHTML file, you get the entire Web page, but you might lose some formatting, scripts, .gif image files (HTML only), or lists of data in a single cell.

When you open an XML file, you have the option of applying one or more referenced stylesheets.

[PfcHammer]

4. Data -> Get External Data -> New Web Query (Only the tables)

then paste your URL

e.g. http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=&zip=22035&search=Search+by+Location

[msanger]

7. this works pretty well

thanks to everybody for their suggestions.

I know what I'm going to be doing while the republicans are jabbering away the next few days. Building mailing lists to GOTV..

[rodmant]

5. give me link to most imp page, I will try to get to it (I'm off on Monday)

not promising can do it, but will try, just post the link to
most imp page and I will try. I can post the results to
my website

[Lithos]

6. Other trick is to copy and paste it into your Excel spreadsheet

Use Internet Explorer though as the other browser types do not support the rich text format expected by Excel. One trick before you paste is to count the number of columns and change the format in these columns to be pure text. (Not general formatting). This can be important if you are trying to preserve specific text formating (such as Dates, etc.) which can be mangled by the conversion into Excel.



L-