Folks,
I just saw this. I use Excel 2010 and it does not save many of the special characters to a .txt file correctly.
However since I use Excel extensively for creating IPTC files and for captioning, I also keep the Excel file open along with PhotoMechanic. While most caption info comes from codes, if do I need a text string with special characters I simply copy the Excel cell to the IPTC stationary pad and the special characters paste in correctly.
What I also do is automatically create full or partial captions from roster and event results data pasted into Excel.
For example, the back end of my caption is generated for all files from an event based on the initial data entered into Excel. For example: "in a Class AA Eastern League baseball game between the Akron RubberDucks and the Reading Fightin Phils, Thursday, June 22, 2017, at FirstEnergy Stadium, Reading, PA." is automatically generated from the initial event data in Excel.
By copying the box score data for that game from the team website and pasting it into Excel I automatically generate the front end of the caption as follows: "Reading third baseman Mitch Walding (10) went 2 for 4 including two home runs with three RBI's ". The logic and text of the caption can be customized to your preference.
Since the backend of the caption is already in the base IPTC file for that event, the front end is entered with the code /p10x/ which is also automatically generated by Excel by combining the player roster with the box score data for that player. "p" is the first initial of the team, "10" the player number and "x" denotes this is the caption from the box score, not the general player text which would be /p10/.
Excel allows you to develop extensive logic for combining data elements for complex captions or correcting data formats to more usable text.
For example, the caption "Dover's Fred Smith defeats Middletown's John Jones in the 106 pound class final " is a caption front end which automatically looks up the name and school of the winner and name and school of the defeated wrestler to create the caption.
Another example: "Joe Herman of Easton in his 1998 Chevy Corvette was fastest in the Super Street Prepared class with a time of 1:30.333 at the Pagoda Hillclimb on Duryea Drive, Reading, PA, Saturday, June 24, 2017" was created by combining data from the entrants list, with data from the results sheet as well as logistical and date data from other parts of the Excel file. In this case, Excel converts the year of the car from a two digit format to a four digit format. Excel also automatically converts the time of the run from seconds "90.333" to minutes and seconds format "1:30.333".
Since Excel automates so much data management, I don't use multiple columns in the IPTC text file. I use Excel to create multiple codes for variations of the same data. For example:
/p10/ = "Reading third baseman Mitch Walding (10) "
/p10n/ = "third baseman Mitch Walding (10) " such as may be used when two players are in the photo and the team identification is redundant for the second player ID'd
/p10x/ = "Reading third baseman Mitch Walding (10) went 2 for 4 including two home runs with three RBI's " the caption front end generated from the box score.
The reduction in manual typing for captions is massive and significantly speeds up captioning allowing more time for photo selection an formatting.
There is tons more productivity possible with Excel. For example, covering track and field events can be difficult. Excel can be used to combine the athlete roster and the event schedule to build a shooting schedule for all events, identifying whether the event is a "preliminary" or "final" as well as listing the top three seeds by name and number so I can find those persons quickly.
Cheers.
