Importing a Database, Spreadsheet, or CSV File

Databases (such as Microsoft Access) and spreadsheets (such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc) store structured information, often displayed as a table.

The first row of a table, the header row, normally contains descriptions of the information stored in each column. Even simple text files can contain information structured in this way. All these files are relatively easy to import into Citavi.

The first time you import a text file with tabular data, you configure how reference types in the file will be mapped to reference types in Citavi. For example, if in your table you have the description "Web page," you can tell Citavi to enter this data as an Internet Document.

1. In the Reference Editor, on the File menu, click Import.
2. Click File containing tabular data and click Next.
3. Select the format of the file you are importing and click Next. (If you've already created an import definition it will appear here).
4. Click Browse to select the file to import and then click Next. If the spreadsheet or database file contains more than one worksheet or table, select the one that contains the references you want to import and click Next.
5. Select whether the first row contains column headers and click Next.
6. If the file contains a column with the reference type, select the column/field that contains it, then for each reference type in Citavi, type in the name of that reference type as it appears in the file. For example, if your file calls journal articles "article", then type article next to Journal article. If your file doesn't contain a column with the reference type, select Not available on the column/field menu.
7. Select the reference type you want to define the field mappings for and click Next. In the next step, you will assign the fields in the source file to the corresponding Citavi fields for the selected reference type.
8. After you are done with one reference type, you will see the message Do you want to define the field mappings for another reference type? If there are more document types in the source file that you want to define, select Yes. Then click Next.
9. To save the custom filter you have created for future imports using the same field structure, select Save as and type a name.
10. Click Next to begin the import.
11. To add all displayed references to your project, click Add to project. To add specific references only, first select the corresponding checkboxes and then click Add to project.