cutting and pasting from excel or other programs

Typically, when I need to create a series of numbered items (e.g., itemname01, itemname02, itemname03, etc.) I create these with a program like MS excel, which does this easily, then paste this into whatever program I am using (e.g., SPSS). While using the questionnaire editor, however, I can't do this, and creating a series of numbered items becomes a chore that takes time from more important work. I looked through the forums and didn't find an answer - the closest answer from Blair was to open the file in Acess and manipulate things there. Aside from the fact that I don't use Acess and don't really know the program, when I figured out enough to actually paste some values from excel into access, I couldn't save the file as a .que - it only let me save it as an access file.

Any thoughts on updating the cut and paste capability of the questionnaire editor (maybe even including right-click cell possibilities for pasting in the details windows?). Other ideas about how to do what I would like quickly and easily?

I'm running version 2008.1.22

All I can really do here is agree completely and hope we pull off the ultimate editor for v2010. In the mean time, the best I can offer is to open the que file in Access (as described in the thread: [URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=663[/URL]). If it doesn't allow you to save it as a que file, save it as the default format (*.mdb) and then simply rename it *.que. Que files are really mdb files--just renamed.

Ok...Thanks! Afterward, I realized I could change the file extension (but that's too easy!) from access to .que. Still, there is the necessity to cut and paste from *excel* into *access* and then name as .que - but that's better than inputing all those variable names!

I love ML but I'll love it even more when changes that allow a direct paste into fields such as this in the .que editor come about.

When you say cut and paste from Excel into Access--does that refer to new stuff you adding--or to opening just getting the que info open for editing in the first place. Because you can just rename the [I]*.que[/I] file to [I]*.mdb[/I] and it will open for editing in Access--no need to cut and paste from Excel at all. Or is this for some other step/purpose?

I can get the file open in access easily enough. I'm not familiar enough with access to know how to easily create sequential series of item names (which I know how to do in excel easily). So, at this point, I just open the .que in access, create item names/numbers in excel, and paste these into access. When I close access, they appear in the .que file, so it is working just fine.

Thanks for the help, and I look forward to the new version.

As you may know, if you copy a lot of info from Excel, and paste it in to MediaLab Experiment Editor, you end up losing much of your pasted data when you close Media Lab and attempt to re-open your questionaire later. I stumbled on a work-around for this problem.
1) Copy your data from Excel and Paste into MediaLab Experimenter Editor.
2) Go to the very last line of your MediaLab questionaire.
3) Click on 'Details'
4) You'll notice that details of the last line does not open up. Rather, it's the details from line 4 or so. Click on the checkmark to exit out of details.
5) Repeat step 2-4. The next time you open details, it will be for line 8 or so. Keep repeating steps 2 - 4.
6) Eventually, you will actually get details for the last line of the questionaire. At this point, it is safe to save your questionaire and exit MediaLab. Your data will still be there when you open the questionaire back up.

Thanks for that slaurent but OMG, that is so sad you need to do that. I will push as much as I can to see we get a shiny new editor included with the next version that is hassle free in this regard.

Great! No worries, though. It's not too hard to deal with. Probably I should just update my knowledge of how to use access. And I love ML all the same.