I had no trouble doing this when using Excel 2003 for Windows. I am now using a Mac and have Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac version 12.1.15. The following occurs when I do the upload.
Upload file present, checking for valid format
BIRTHDAY R is not a valid field name
UN1 is not a valid field name
15000001 is not a valid field name
DOE is not a valid field name
JOHN is not a valid field name
PAWN PKWAY is not a valid field name
NEW YORK is not a valid field name
NY is not a valid field name
10028 is not a valid field name
M is not a valid field name
1/1/60 R is not a valid field name
UN1 is not a valid field name
15000002 is not a valid field name
JANE is not a valid field name
DOE is not a valid field name
ROOK RD is not a valid field name
NEW YORK is not a valid field name
NY is not a valid field name
10024 is not a valid field name
M is not a valid field name
These is the actual errors I got on the upload, except I changed names, addresses and birthday for privacy. I saved the file as tab delimited text. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is there a fix, or do I need to install my old Excel on my virtual windows machine on my Mac? I run Swiss-Sys through Parallels on my mac book.
I don’t know if I have that version of Excel for Mac (my wife may have it on her Mac), but I have found in the past that Excel for Mac tends to work somewhat differently than Excel for Windows.
Try zipping up one of the (supposedly) tab-delimited files and emailing it to me (mnolan@uschess.org), I’ll look at it on Monday to see what it really looks like. (You need to zip it up or it can get altered in the process of emailing it.)
It looks like your file only includes data. The first line is supposed to be the column field names. In this case the software looked at your data and is telling you that it is not the field names.
I agree with martinak, it appears the field labels are missing in your text file. Apparently, the software that verifies the upload is looking for specific labels in the first row of each column and is instead finding something else (your first row of data).
If your Excel file actually had the correct labels, you might check a couple of things:
Excel might have some kind of option when converting the spreadsheet to the delimited text file that addresses how the conversion handles the first row. If so, maybe the option currently invoked eliminates that row.
I have also found Excel (Windows version, don’t have the Mac version) can be picky about the formatting and data in the first row when doing conversions to dBase format, and may have the same quirks when converting to delimited text files. For example, if you have an empty column in your first row, the conversion to dBase comes out much differently than you might expect. If I remember correctly, it ignores all the columns after the empty one. Another related problem I seem to remember is that if you have the column width set too narrow to display all the data in a column before you do the conversion, there is likely to be some truncating of data.
I have the proper header names Type, Code, LN, FN etc. but for some reason in the Mac version it ignores that line and picks up the information from my first entry. I’ve always had this problem on the mac version, but it works fine on the windows version. Something seems to happen during the conversion from .xls to .txt. Now that I’m using mac only for Excel I would like to resolve the issue.
As a work-around, could you possibly edit the comma-delimited file (using Notepad or something similar), adding an “extra” first row by hand, before submitting it? You’d have to make sure all the commas, quotes, etc are exactly correct.
If the file is tab-delimited rather than comma-delimited, this trick might not work, since Notepad (etc) probably have no method of inserting a tab character.
Or, perhaps within Excel, could you simply copy and paste the top row into an “extra” second row before saving?
Excel for Mac apparently still writes files out using the old Macintosh (Carriage Return) line termination standard, rather than the PC (Carriage Return and Line Feed) standard or the Unix one.
As a result, the program only sees one line of ‘text’ in the file, so it tries to interpret some of the data fields as if they were column headings.
I’ll have to modify the program that processes the upload files to look for as well as and .
Is there a document somewhere on the USCF website that gives a step-by-step how to create the file and do the upload? I looked around and didn’t see one.
There are free videos for that on YouTube (search for “theeightytwentytd”) or go to my site: http://the80-20td.com/ where the material is a bit more organized.
Either way you will need to pick the video for software you are using (WinTD or SwissSys) and then the video for that software that showing how to create the files. Then check out the USCF videos I made regarding the upload process.
Thanks Mike, I did look there before, but didn’t go all the way into the Membership input screen, I see it now.
Tim, I haven’t watched all of them, but these videos are GREAT! Thanks so much for posting them. I was referring to bulk membership uploads vs. rating reports, do you have one for that too?
Haven’t had to do memberships during the pandemic. Just starting again. Is there still some way in the new system to upload a text file with the necessary information for all the memberships or do we now have to hand type in each one.
Seems like there isn’t a way to upload a text file of all memberships. For me, it used to be a few clicks and the memberships were processed. Now I have to cut and paste all the different fields. I had 15 memberships and it took forever. I don’t think I would be able to run a large scholastic where I might have 50 memberships.
In addition, there are other problems with the forms. For some reason, the fields where options are saved (Print Magazine Subscription, Name Prefix and Name Suffix) were somehow set. I’m sure I didn’t do anything but in saving and restoring something happened. Now, for a normally designed website that wouldn’t be a big problem, but not here. Once they’ve been chosen, all you can do is go to one of the other choices - you can’t go back to a blank field - which is what you want. So, they have to have one of the name suffixes - Jr, Sr, I,… even though they don’t actually have a suffix. And for prefix they were set at Mrs, so the best can do is change that to Mr, but they don’t need anything. I can’t find any way to get rid of a print magazine and it’s fee. I tried in Firefox, Edge, IE and Chrome.
The only way that I know of is to start over. Then double check or even triple check that you didn’t put anything into one of those fields before hitting the Next button.
I encountered a different issue in a tournament I ran last weekend. Among the advance entries, there were maybe half a dozen players who were either non-members or needed to renew. I e-mailed all of them explaining this and giving the link to join. All but one took care of it days before the event. One player renewed at the door.
When the time came to submit the rating report, I first processed his membership, then waited until the new exp. appeared in his member record. Then I proceeded with the rating report. When I went to validate, this player was flagged as a non-member. So I waited a little more and then tried again, with the same result. After trying for nearly an hour with no change, the only way I could finish the report was to check the $10 “TD error” box. The $10 was not a huge deal but I was left wondering what I would have done if 5-6 players had all paid dues at the door. I would certainly not pay $50 extra just to get the report in quickly. I have to wonder, just how long does it take for a membership payment to be recognized by the rating report area?