DESCRIPTION:
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This script will read a tab-delimited text file produced by Microsoft Excel or Access and tabulate them as HTML table inside your own template.

INSTALLATION:
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activetable.cgi:
1) Change the first line (path to Perl) of the script.
2) Go to the next line of the script. Read the instruction there and modify accordingly.
3) Upload this script to your cgi bin or anywhere outside the cgi-bin if your server's configuration allows that. Chmod to 755. You may also rename the script.

template.htm:
1) Create your own template and place +++ (three plus signs) at the location where you want the script results to be printed. See detailed instruction in the script.

HOW TO CREATE A TAB-DELIMITED TEXT FILE FROM MICROSOFT EXCEL?
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1) Create your Excel table as usual OR open an existing Excel file (*.xls).
2) Go to "File" on the menu and choose "Save As ...".
3) Name your file.
4) Under "Save as type", choose "Text (Tab Delimited) *.txt".
5) After saving, a warning prompt will appear. Simply ignore it.
* Note: If you have "commas" in a cell in the original Excel file, that particular cell content will be automatically bracketed by Excel/Access with double-quotation marks ( " ) when converted to text file. To eliminate these double-quotation marks, open the saved text file with a text editor such as WordPad and delete all the double-quotation marks ( " ) using the "Replace" feature (type a " in "Find what" and leave "Replace with" empty).
* MS-Access works the similar way.

HOW TO CONVERT THE DATA FILE BACK TO MICROSOFT EXCEL FORMAT?
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1) From the "File" menu, choose "Open ...".
2) Change the "Files of type" to "Text Files (*.prn, *.txt, *.csv)".
3) Browse to the text file and open it.

4) A Text Import Wizard will show up. Select the radio button "Delimited"; "Start import at row" as "1" and "File origin" as "Windows (ANSI)". Click NEXT.
5) Mark the "Tab" checkbox. Leave "Text qualifier" as ". Click NEXT.
6) Choose the "Text" radio button. Highlight ALL columns under "Date Preview" by holding down the SHIFT key. Click FINISH.
* MS-Access works the similar way.

HOW TO PLACE A HEADER AT THE FIRST ROW OF THE TABLE
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While entering the data in Excel, format the header using HTML tags. For example, you may use "<B>Item</B>" in the A1 field, "<B>Description</B>" in the A2 field and so on.

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