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Import a list of alternatives from a Microsoft Excel workbook into 1000minds.

Quick reference

Importing Alternatives

Import a list of alternatives from a Microsoft Excel workbook into 1000minds.

When to use

Use this when you want to import a list of alternatives or their updated information from an Excel file. This is useful if you have a list of alternatives in another program and would like to use that list in 1000minds.

Instructions

Uploading Excel datasheet

  • In the menu on the left, click on the arrow next to "Alternatives", then click "Import Alternatives".
  • Choose an .xlsx file to upload by clicking on "browse" and selecting the appropriate file, or drag the file into the upload box. Then click "Upload".
  • Next, select which sheet from your workbook you would like to import the data from.

Selecting data range to import

  • In most cases, your data should already be automatically selected, but you should scroll to the end of your data to make sure that this is the case.
  • If all your data is not already selected, click once on the top left of your data cell. This should automatically select all your data.
  • To specify any other cell range, hold down the left mouse button and drag to select the desired cell range.

Matching columns to 1000minds alternatives sheet

  • Import your alternative names into the "Name" column in 1000minds.
  • If you already have existing criteria and costs & other considerations in 1000minds, match your imported criteria and costs & other considerations
    to the appropriate columns.
  • If you do not have any suitable columns already, select "new criterion" or "new consideration".
  • If you do not want to import a column, select "don't import this."

Checking data structure

  • After matching your columns, click "check data structure" so that 1000minds can check that there are no errors.
  • A summary of what data will be imported/updated  will be shown, along with any errors
  • If you do not fix the errors (e.g. duplicate alternatives) and proceed to import the data anyway, you may end up with problems in your final imported data.

Hints & tips

  • If you only want to import a list of alternative names, but do not have any criteria, considerations, or other data attached to those names, it may be easier to use the "bulk add" option at the top of the "Alternatives" page.
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  • 00:05 Sometimes we might have an existing list of alternatives, either on our computer or
  • 00:10 in another program that we want to import into 1000minds.
  • 00:16 Lucky for us we don't have to add all of this data manually.
  • 00:20 We can easily import our data from an Excel sheet in just a few clicks.
  • 00:25 To do this, we go to alternatives in the menu on the left and
  • 00:29 click on Import alternatives.
  • 00:32 And that'll bring us here.
  • 00:35 We have to make sure that the data in our Excel file is formatted so
  • 00:39 that the rows correspond to our alternatives.
  • 00:43 And the criteria and any other considerations are in columns.
  • 00:48 So let's say we want to import this Excel sheet into 1000minds.
  • 00:53 We click on browse, select the file, and click upload.
  • 01:02 Here we specify which sheet of our workbook has the data that
  • 01:06 we want to import.
  • 01:07 So we'll select that sheet from the drop-down menu.
  • 01:14 The cool thing here is that 1000minds already has all our data automatically
  • 01:19 selected.
  • 01:20 So all we have to do is double check that it's correct.
  • 01:24 And if you want to specify a different salary range than the one that's selected,
  • 01:29 we just click on the first cell of our data, and
  • 01:32 drag to select the range we want to import.
  • 01:37 Then we click Continue.
  • 01:42 Now we see our data reproduced here along with the columns of
  • 01:46 the 1000minds data sheet that we can match our data to,
  • 01:50 for example, the column that says energy sources on our Excel sheet.
  • 01:55 We want it to be imported into the name column in 1000minds.
  • 02:00 Because those are the names of our alternatives.
  • 02:04 In some cases we might not have an appropriate column in 1000minds,
  • 02:08 that we can import our data into.
  • 02:12 For example, for cleanliness,
  • 02:14 it doesn't look like we have any suitable columns for this criterion already
  • 02:19 so we'll create a new column.
  • 02:21 We can also choose to omit some columns by selecting don't import this.
  • 02:27 This way these columns won't be added to a 1000minds alternatives sheet.
  • 02:32 By checking the box up here where it says Update data for
  • 02:36 any existing alternatives with the same name or custom ID.
  • 02:40 The data on the alternatives page will automatically be updated to match
  • 02:45 the data in our imported file
  • 02:47 for any alternatives in our 1000minds alternatives table that
  • 02:52 have the same name or custom ID as an alternative in our imported file,
  • 02:57 this way we avoid adding any duplicate alternatives.
  • 03:03 Now let's check to make sure that all our data are matched correctly.
  • 03:13 Once you're finished, we click on check data structure,
  • 03:17 so that 1000minds can check for us that there're no errors.
  • 03:21 Once everything is okay, click on Import.
  • 03:26 Now we've successfully added all the data from our Excel file into 1000minds,
  • 03:31 and now we can do anything we want with it.

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