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Miscellanous Features

This section is for features that don't clearly fit in any of the other categories.

Import and Export

Modern CSV can import and export JSON and XML files. More file types will be added in the future.

Importing

Importing
Import from JSON or XML

When importing, it looks for repeating patterns and places them in table form for more compact editing. The Preserve Original File Structure option will yield a file that may look a bit more awkward, but will allow you to export back to JSON or XML without losing any information or the file structure.

Exporting

Exporting
Export to JSON or XML

As mentioned previously, if you export a file that had been imported with the Preserve Original File Structure option set, the exported version will have the same file structure.

Export to PDF

The Exporting to PDF command is the same as printing except it goes to a PDF file instead of a physical printer. Learn more about printing here.

Printing

Printing
Print

The Print command brings up a Print dialog with a print preview and 4 sections:

  • Page Setup
  • Printer
  • Print Range
  • CSV Options

Most of the options are self-explanatory. Here are some explanations for options that are not completely self-explanatory.

To export to PDF, in the Printer section's Name field, select Print to File (PDF). Then, select the output file path next to the Output File field. The Export to PDF function opens the same dialog with the Name field already set to the PDF option.

If you only want to print a small portion of the file, in the program's main window, select either the rows or the columns you want. Then, in the Print Range section next to the Selection Only field, check Selected Rows or Selected Columns or both.

Here's an explanation of the CSV Options section:

  • Headers: If you have at least one header row or column, these options will show them on every page.
  • Labels: You can print the row or column number. If you have the Represent Columns as Letters setting enabled, it will print letters for columns. It will also respect your settings for First Row Index and First Column Index.
  • Gridlines: You can show or hide the row or column gridlines.
  • Center: You can center the table on the page vertically, horizontally, or both.
  • Page Order: This applies to files with more rows and columns than can fit on one page. Row-wise means page 2 will be the same rows as page 1 but the columns will be to the right. It will keep shifting right until it runs out of columns. Then, it will start on the next set of rows and the first columns. Column-wise is the opposite. It will keep the columns the same and go down the rows, then go back up and start on the next set of columns.
  • Misc: You can print the file title at the top or the page numbers at the bottom in the center or both.

Web URLs

Modern CSV can open websites in your default browser.


Go to URLs

Follow Selected Hyperlink(s) (ctrl+r) will take you to whatever URLs are in the selected cells.

Follow Selected Hyperlink(s) (cmd+r) will take you to whatever URLs are in the selected cells.


Web Search for Selected Terms opens a browser and performs web searches in separate tabs for each selected cell.

You change the search engine with the Search Engine setting. The default is duckduckgo.com. It's easiest to use the Set Search Engine command because it gives you several pre-defined options including:

  • duckduckgo.com
  • bing.com
  • google.com
  • yahoo.com

You can also enter a custom domain in case you want to use another search engine. Optionally, you may include the resource/parameter key part (e.g. the /search?q= part of google.com.au/search?q=). If you don't include it, it's assumed to be /search?q=. Optionally, you may include the https:// and/or the www. part.


Web Search for Selected Places in Map opens a browser and performs map searchs in separate tabs for each selected cell.

You change the map with the Online Map setting. The default is duckduckgo.com. It's easiest to use the Set Search Engine command because it gives you several pre-defined options including:

  • duckduckgo.com
  • bing.com
  • google.com

You can also enter a custom domain in case you want to use another online map. Optionally, you may include the resource/parameter key part (e.g. google.co.za/search?q=). If you don't include it, it's assumed to be /search?q=. Optionally, you may include the https:// and/or the www. part.

Open the file in an external text editor

Open File in Text Editor opens the current file, as saved on disk, in an external text editor of your choice. The default text editors, by platform, are:

  • Windows: Notepad
  • Mac: TextPad
  • Linux: gedit

You can change the text editor with the Set Text Editor command.

Column Lookup

Column Lookup

The Column Lookup is similar to VLOOKUP in spreadsheet programs. It can pull in data from other files or the same file.

With Column Lookup, there are two "key" columns that contain the same data, usually a unique ID. One contains the "from" (or source) keys and the other contains the "to" (or destination) keys. It looks up the values in the same rows as the the "from" keys and places them in the same rows as their respective "to" keys.

You can decide which columns are the "value" columns, there may be more than one, and they do not have to be adjacent to each other. You can also decide where the values should be placed. When they are placed, they will be adjacent to each other, even if they weren't adjacent originally. You are also given the choice whether they should overwrite existing columns or new columns should be inserted.

If a "to" key doesn't have a matching "from" key, it's values are left empty.

Here are the queries you will have to answer when using this command:

  1. Select the File to Look Up Data From.
  2. Enter the Key Column in the Lookup File.
  3. Enter the Value Column(s) in the Lookup File.
  4. File to Write Data To.
  5. Enter the Key Column in the Destination File.
  6. Enter the Value Column in the Destination File.
  7. Do you want to insert new columns or overwrite existing columns?

You can either type columns in (e.g. 3-6, 8, 10) or select them in the table. When selecting them, be sure to click back on the query and hit enter.

Since there are so many steps, it lists out the previous reponses. If you need to go back, you can click on them or hit ctrl+left.

Since there are so many steps, it lists out the previous reponses. If you need to go back, you can click on them or hit cmd+left.

Example

Suppose we have this data in the "From" file.

ID (From) First Name Last Name
1 Angus Young
2 Cliff Williams
3 Malcolm Young
4 Brian Johnson
5 Phil Rudd
6 Bon Scott

We set the ID (From) as the Lookup Key and the First Name and Last Name columns as the Source Value columns.

The destination file looks like this:

ID (To)
3
5
6
1
2
4

When we set the ID (To) column as the Destination Key and its adjacent columns as the Destination Value columns, we get this:

ID (To)
3 Malcolm Young
5 Phil Rudd
6 Bon Scott
1 Angus Young
2 Cliff Williams
4 Brian Johnson

Even though the IDs are in different orders, the values are with their corresponding IDs.