EP Helper can assist you by designing a pattern to fit text that you paste in.

1. Any text that is static i.e. doesn't change, leave unmarked. Examples of static text might be field names (e.g. Name: Address: ), or HTML tags (e.g. <table><tr> etc).
2. Any text that changes from record to record, mark as variable text by first selecting it, then clicking the [Mark selection as variable text] button.  Examples might be the person's name or address data.
3. If you want to extract pieces of the text, or re-arrange the text in a replacement string, then select it first, then click the [Mark selection for capture] button. Examples (again) might be the person's name or address data.
4. Finally, if two variable or captured fields are right next to each other but without any delimiting character, you can insert a break between them by positioning the cursor where the break is, and click on [Insert a break between fields].

If your data is HTML, XML, Colon: field-based, CSV, or separated by a common delimiter, just click the [Auto-detect fields] button, and EP Helper will mark the fields for you.

To clear any existing marks, select the text first, then click the [Clear text properties] button.

EP Helper looks at the data in the field to try and determine what kind of characters are expected. If it finds any digits in the field, it will allow any digits to occur in the pattern. The same goes for spaces and punctuation - if EP Helper finds either in the field, then it will allow for any type of white space or punctuation. Particularly with address data, it's wise to type in a punctuation mark such as '#' to force EP Helper to allow any kind of punctuation. It's amazing the variety of characters that end up in address data ( &, /, @, #, :, ;, (, ), -) to name just a few! Similarly for phone data.

When you're read to refine your pattern, move to the next tab.

See Also

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