Examples-How to use

Discrepancy Example:

Say we have this two-sheet spreadsheet:

test2.xls

Try merging this spreadsheet by double-clicking your mwm-1.0.1.1.jar file, clicking a "Browse" button,
selecting test2.xls, hitting the "Merge" button, and selecting or typing the name
of an output spreadsheet. If you did all this, then you should get a message saying

Merging failed.
MWM has encountered a discrepancy in your data.
The "name" value "bill"
has a(n) "age" value of "9"
in one sheet and a(n) "age" value of "10"
in another. Please correct this and try merging again.

Here is the discrepancy: bill is 9 years old in Sheet3 and 10 years old in Sheet2.
So...which one is it?

At this point, merging has stopped without creating the output spreadsheet.
If you open up your favorite spreadsheet program and change the value of bill's
age so that it is the same in both sheets, then the merging should succeed.
I arbitrarily changed bill's age to 35 in both sheets and my output spreadsheet
is this:

test4.xls

If any of this was unclear or you have a concern, let the MWM community know by clicking the discussion tab above. Remember, you can remain anonymous in the discussion forum if you want to.

An Example of How to Use MWM:

Let's say we have the following spreadsheets: (click each of these to download these spreadsheets).

test0.xls test1.xls

Obviously, these are simple spreadsheets, but this is just an example to illustrate a point.
We will not use mwm.jar to join these spreadsheets. (If you have not downloaded these .xls files and mwm.jar yet, then please do so now.)

1)Now that you have downloaded mwm.jar and the .xls files, double-click mwm.jar.

2) If you accept the license agreement, then click OK. If you do not click OK then the software exits and the rest of this tutorial will not help you very much.

3) You should now see a new window pop up. This will have instructions at the top on what to do from here. If you want to follow those instructions, then you can skip steps 4-6, which are the same instructions but with more detail, and continue reading with the Details of MWM section below.

4) Click one of the browse buttons that does not have a file name to the right of it.

5) From the window that pops up, find the first spreadsheet that you want to include in your merge. Click on this spreadsheet and then click OK.

6) Repeats steps 4 and 5 until you have selected all of the spreadsheets whose information you want to merge. You should note that the name of a spreadsheet you selected appears to the left of the button that you browsed from.

7) Now that you have selected your spreadsheets, click the Merge button. Then, find and click on a .xls file or type the name of the .xls file that you want to hold the results of merging your spreadsheets.

8) After a minute, you should see a message box saying that either a) the merge failed or b) the merge succeeded. If your merge failed, then please see the Details of MWM section below.

If you followed these instructions, using test0.xls and test1.xls as the files you wanted to merge, then your output file should look like this:

test3.xls

Details of MWM:

It is possible that desirable features are missing from MWM, mainly because what is "desirable" depends on the individual. If you really would like to see a feature included in the next release of MWM, then please email us at combine2@users.sourceforge.net. If enough people request a feature, then we will add it in a future release of MWM.

If you got a message saying that your merge failed, then please read the Merge Failed section. If you were unpleasantly surprised with the results of your merge, then please read the Limits of MWM section.

Merge Failed:

If your merge failed, then please check the following:

1) You saved and closed your spreadsheets before you stared MWM. All spreadsheets should be saved and closed before you start MWM. Minimizing the spreadsheet is not the same as closing the spreadsheet.

2) You did not put images or formulas in your spreadsheets. If you need to merge spreadsheets with images or formulas, then please read the Image Workaround section below.

3) Your spreadsheets are all Excel 95, 97, 2000, XP, or 2003 files. So all of your spreadsheets should have .xls file extensions. Not .odt, not .xlsx, and not anything else. This is because JExcelApi is not likely to work on any files other than .xls files, and MWM depends heavily on JExcelApi.

4) Your spreadsheets contained a shared primary key column. (See What Is a Primary Key if you are asking that question right now). So if your primary key is an ID number, then each of your spreadsheets should have a column of ID numbers. Note that MWM does not think that "ID#", "identification number, or "id#" are the same thing, so please make sure that your primary key columns have exactly the same name.

5) If you still are having trouble, then please email us at combine2@users.sourceforge.net

What Is a Primary Key:

As far as the MWM application is concerned, a primary key is a value that uniquely identifies a row in a spreadsheet. Examples of this would be a username, an ID number, or a Social Security number, as there is no ambiguity in referring to someone by username, ID number, or Social Security number. In the examples above with test0.xls and test1.xls, ID# was a primary key because no two people had the same ID#, though people could have the same name, blood type, or IQ.

Image Workaround:

Unfortunately, MWM does not currently have the ability to merge files that contain formulas or images, mainly because the position of a graph or formula in a spreadsheet is more subjective than the position of a spreadsheet cell. A current workaround is to make copies of these .xls files under different names (such as my_xls_file_temporary.xls), remove the images and formulas, run MWM on the copies, and then insert the formulas and images from the original spreadsheets into the output spreadsheet where you think they should go.

Limits of MWM:

Currently, MWM does not order columns or rows in the output spreadsheet in a specific way. This is because the order of spreadsheet columns and rows is a more subjective decision than the position of a spreadsheet cell. This functionality will be available in a future version of MWM.

Currently, MWM does not directly have the ability to merge spreadsheets with images or formulas. See Image Workaround above for details.

Currently, MWM does not accept files other than .xls files as spreadsheets to be merged.