HUGE Dispatch Tables Formatting Guide (Microsoft Word+Excel)

[Queen Yuno]

Dispatch Version here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1078508

BEFORE BEGINNING, you need Microsoft Word and Excel (excel can be the free google sheets, probably works the same way. As for word, you'll need microsoft word for the linebreak replacement tool and word is the only word processor I know that has it, unless you figure out an alternative- which I haven't. )

HERE'S THE GUIDE:

Step 1: Retrieve a list of your endorsers! (Or whatever list, I'm using endorsers as an example for the purpose of this guide)

Step 2: PASTE your paste onto pastebin.com! (Because: since that copy/paste will include all the flags/images, you paste it onto pastebin.com to get rid of all the images.) DO NOT HIT SUBMIT.

Step 3: Now, copy that paste, and paste it onto Microsoft Word.

Step 4: Go to Find + Replace

---

Step 5: Find all Commas (,) and replace them all with (,^p) comma, exponent symbol, and “p”) without the parenthesis. Basically replace all instances of , with ,^p

Like this

Step 6: hit “Replace All!”

Step 7: Copy and paste that into Excel, Column-Row A1.

Step 8:

Paste in =MOD(ROW(E2)-ROW($E$1)-1,N) with N being the number of rows you want in your table. So if you want 6 rows, do

=MOD(ROW(E2)-ROW($E$1)-1,6)

Click on bottom right corner and drag the formula down to the bottom to the last nation listed

Step 9: Copy and paste both rows. To do this, you hold down Shift and click on A, then click B. This way, you highlight both rows A and B

Step 10: Next, you copy these 2 rows and paste them into Microsoft Word to get:

Step 11: Now you copy that and paste that into pastebin.com

Step 12: Copy that and paste the pastebin BACK into Microsoft Word (new.)

Step 13: Find+Replace all the ^p with NOTHINGNESS/EMPTY.

Type in ^p under the find section, and leave the Replace section blank, and then click Replace All. You get:

Step 14: FIND THE BIGGEST NUMBER, in this case the biggest number is 5, (since we chose to make the table 6 rows and the numbers start at 0, the largest number here is 5.)
Do a Find+Relace:

Find ,5

and Replace it with

[/nation][/td][/tr][nation]

Step 15:
Find the rest of the ,numbers and replace them all with [/nation][nation]

For example, find ,0 and replace ALL that with [/nation][nation]
Find ,1 and replace ALL that with [/nation][nation]
Find ,2 and replace ALL that with [/nation][nation]
Find ,3 and replace ALL that with [/nation][nation]
Find ,4 and replace ALL that with [/nation][nation]

You already did ,5 with something else, so ignore that.

Pictures if you still don’t get it

FINAL RESULT:

Step 16: (Now, you notice that there is a space within those nation tags. You need to remove them.)

FIND ALL [nation] with a space at the end, and REPLACE all that with [nation] WITHOUT the space at the end.
Basically, “[nation] “ is replaced with “[nation]” without the quotations.

(Notice how all the initial spaces within the nation tags have vanished.)

Step 17:

Place [tr][td][nation] at the beginning of the document, and place
[/nation] at the end of the document:

FINAL STEP: And you’re done!

[Queen Yuno]

The South Pacific + The North Pacific have better tools for this (Python or Command Line or ... programming) Credits to R3n and Viet for the creation of their dispatches that made me want to copy them, somehow (Thanks!)
TNP's: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1069530 which I really liked , coded by R3n
TSP: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1045928 This is beautiful, like 999%, coded by United States of Vietnam and their friends
TEP: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1076469 I made this dispatch as an excuse to test this code trick, but I made up some reason of "Thanks for being a WA nation" ^_^

[Queen Yuno]

[RESERVED]

____

(This thread is for reference)
hopefully RPers use this (besides just GCRs)

Thanks for reading ><

Dispatch version here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1078508

[Kurnugia]

hey, a piece of advice: do not make the pics so huge. It makes it a bit unreadable.

Glad to see you passing your knowledge down though ^_^

[Queen Yuno]

hey, a piece of advice: do not make the pics so huge. It makes it a bit unreadable.

Glad to see you passing your knowledge down though ^_^

Thanks, but there are too many images for me to shrink, so look at the dispatch version instead
Btw I hope someone makes a shortcut for this

[Fauxia]

Is it not possible to spoiler the images though?

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

You know, you can do at least a few more of those steps *in* find & replace and other tools, just in word, without most of the back and forth with excel ;P Also, can skip the pastebin throughput by just right clicking and pasting into word "without formatting," since all you're using pastebin for is to strip it down to plaintext.

[Queen Yuno]

You know, you can do at least a few more of those steps *in* find & replace and other tools, just in word, without most of the back and forth with excel ;P Also, can skip the pastebin throughput by just right clicking and pasting into word "without formatting," since all you're using pastebin for is to strip it down to plaintext.

but ur wife likes excel

(PS if you could post the details or send instructions on how, would be helpful. This is a pure aesthetics/beauty function, so not really a secret.)

Is it not possible to spoiler the images though?

Not enough time right now sorry (plus isn't that more clicks to see the imgs?)

[RiderSyl]

[Jakker]

I spoiled all of the photos. They were just too big to be on their own, especially all in one post. I tried to title the spoilers according to the picture. Feel free to edit as you see fit.

[All Wild Things]

Give this a try if you've got Excel. I doubt this would work in Google sheets.
Copy your endorsers
Right-click, paste-special values in cell A1
From 'Data' ribbon, choose 'Text to Columns'
In the pop-up, select 'delimited'
Click 'Next'
Select only 'comma'
Click 'Finish'

This puts each nation in it's own cell across row 1.

With cell A1 selected, press 'ctrl+shift' and the right arrow to select all the nations.
'ctrl+c' to copy.

In cell A4, paste-special transpose. The nations now list down the page.
In cell B4, insert formula:

Code: Select all

="[tr][td][nation]"&RIGHT(A4,LEN(A4)-1)&"[/nation][/td]"

In cells B5, insert formula:

Code: Select all

="[td][nation]"&RIGHT(A5,LEN(A5)-1)&"[/nation][/td]"

copy the B5 formula to B6 & B7
In cell B8, insert formula:

Code: Select all

="[td][nation]"&RIGHT(A8,LEN(A8)-1)&"[/nation][/td][/tr]"

Highlight the five cells B4:B8 and copy them down to the bottom of the list.
Copy all the formula cells (should already be selected) and paste into a dispatch.

The last nation needs tidied up. Remove the text "and " that will be at the start of the nation name, and the full stop at the end.
Add a [/tr] at the end of the last nation if there isn't already one there, and [/table] at the end of that.
Add [table] at the top of the list.

Should give you a table with five columns.

Is that any easier? Or just the same?

[Yuno1]

All Wild Things, I will try that tomorrow, thanks for the shortcut

I spoiled all of the photos. They were just too big to be on their own, especially all in one post. I tried to title the spoilers according to the picture. Feel free to edit as you see fit.

thank u very much!
u saved me quite a bit of work

[Escade]

That's pretty cool! Thanks for sharing, you're always sharing the things you learn with the larger community which is generous and epic