{"id":417,"date":"2017-10-26T14:44:47","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T14:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/?p=417"},"modified":"2017-10-26T14:44:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T14:44:47","slug":"importing-distribution-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/importing-distribution-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"Importing Distribution Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"knowledgebase-content\">\n<p>Successful importing of <strong>Contact<\/strong> or <strong>Distribution Lists<\/strong> into your Text-Connect account starts with the correct contact number formatting. Correctly formatted lists will have numbers formatted with no zeros, \u2018+\u2019 symbols or spaces and will be saved as a CSV file.<\/p>\n<p>When creating a Distribution or Contact list in a spread sheet you should have the mobile phone number in column A and the contact name (if present) in column B.\u00a0 The email address (if present) will be in column C with custom data following on.<\/p>\n<p>Below are the steps for formatting your data before exporting to a text or CSV file.<\/p>\n<h3>Formatting Distribution Lists: Step 1: Removing Spaces<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>All spaces must be removed from the numbers. To do this, highlight the whole column then push Ctrl + H (Find and Replace).<\/li>\n<li>This screen should then appear:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1437 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists1.png\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists1-300x129.png 300w, http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists1.png 500w\" alt=\"Importing Distribution Lists\" width=\"500\" height=\"215\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In \u2018Find what:\u2019 type a single space, then type nothing in the \u2018Replace with:\u2019 box (because you want to replace all the spaces between the numbers with nothing)<\/li>\n<li>Click \u2018Replace All\u2019. You should get confirmation of how many replacements have been made. Then close the dialogue box and there should be no more spaces in your numbers.<\/li>\n<li>You will also notice that all of the 0\u2019s at the beginning of the numbers have gone, this is ok, it is just a feature of Microsoft Excel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Importing\u00a0Distribution\u00a0Lists: Step 2: Saving the File as a CSV<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>To import a file into Text-Connect it must be saved as a CSV file. To do this go to \u2018File\u2019, \u2018Save As\u2019. Enter your file name in the \u2018File Name\u2019 box and then under \u2018Save as type\u2019 select CSV (comma delimited) from the drop menu.<\/li>\n<li>Then click \u2018Save\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1438 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists2.png\" alt=\"Importing Distribution Lists\" width=\"608\" height=\"482\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you get an error message like this click \u2018Yes\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1439 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists3.png\" sizes=\"(max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists3-150x42.png 150w, http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists3-300x84.png 300w, http:\/\/support.fastsms.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/importinglists3.png 478w\" alt=\"Importing Distribution Lists\" width=\"478\" height=\"134\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Now close the excel sheet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NB: DO NOT RE-OPEN THE SPREADSHEET YOU HAVE JUST SAVED<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The resulting plain text file might look something like this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<pre>\"07974600005\",\"My Name\",\"myname@text-connect.co.uk\",\"123\",\"456\"\r\n\"07779600004\",\"Your Name\",\"myname@text-connect.co.uk\",\"789\",\"012\"\r\n\"07866400003\",\"Their Name\",\"myname@text-connect.co.uk\",\"345\",\"678\"<\/pre>\n<div class=\"knowledgebase-content\">\n<h3>Importing Distribution Lists:\u00a0Step 3: Importing your numbers into your Distribution List.<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Choose which distribution list you would like to add the numbers to within Text-Connect : https:\/\/goto.text-connect.co.uk\/lists<\/li>\n<li>Create a List into which you are going to import your file and data, giving the list a name and variable names for any additional data fields beyond the default Number, Name and Email fields which are assumed:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Distribution-List-Creation.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-500 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Distribution-List-Creation.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"612\" height=\"415\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Click &#8216;Save&#8217; which is at the bottom of the screen.<\/li>\n<li>Back on the &#8216;Lists&#8217; page, click &#8216;<strong>View Entries<\/strong>&#8216; on your new list and then &#8216;<strong>Import<\/strong>&#8216; from the &#8216;More Actions&#8217; drop down.<\/li>\n<li>The pages will give a review of the expected format for your CSV \\ Text file. Select your file and click upload.<\/li>\n<li>If the upload has worked correctly you will be able to see how many contacts have imported. Take a moment to review the new list and ensure the numbers and data have imported correctly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Successful importing of Contact or Distribution Lists into your Text-Connect account starts with the correct contact number formatting. Correctly formatted lists will have numbers formatted with no zeros, \u2018+\u2019 symbols or spaces and will be saved as a CSV file. &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/importing-distribution-lists\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,78],"tags":[12,26,129,133,130,23,131,132,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text-connect.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}