BoltMail
Seperating First and Last Name in a CSV file using Microsoft Excel
A lot of new users of the application find that their previous email application stores the first and last names of their subscribers together instead of in two seperate fields.  This poses a problem when you want to use the application's Custom Field technology to address someone by their first name in the greeting of an email.  In this article, I've offered a simple, seven step process to seperate these fields in minutes!

The Problem
I have a CSV file with multiple columns.  The column I need modify is called "Name".  I need "Name" broken into two seperate fields: "First Name" and "Last Name".

I have provided a few name examples below which show how this situation can be problematic.  In some cases, "Name" only has the first name of a person.  In some other cases, a person's last name may have spaces in it.  Still in other cases, the name might be formatted in the most common configuration.

Bob de Villiers
Jessica
Kerri Reamer

What we need is some sort of logic which will REPLACE the first instance of a SPACE in each row with a COMMA.  If there are no spaces, a COMMA should be appended to the end of the Name.  See below.

Bob,de Villiers
Jessica,
Kerri,Reamer

The Solution
1) Open your CSV file in Microsoft Excel.

2) Insert two columns to the right of the "Name" column (I am assuming it's Col A).

3) In the first new column, put in the header "First Name" and in the second row the formula:

=IF(ISERR(FIND(" ",A2)),A2,LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1))

4) In the 2nd new column, put in the header "Last Name" and in the second row the formula:

=IF(ISERR(FIND(" ",A2)),"",MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,LEN(A2)))

5) Copy those formulas down the entire column.

6) Replace the formulas with values by doing copy then paste special|values.

7) Delete the old Names column.

Have fun importing!