Problem:
You export your Worksheet to a SIF file and then notice that not all the line items appear to have been exported to the SIF. This is usually discovered when you open the SIF file in another application or even import it back into Worksheet and observe not all the line items have imported in.
For example, let's say you had a 40-line Worksheet, but when you open the SIF copy, only the first 9 items are showing.
Cause:
The most common cause to this issue is a line break in one or more Worksheet cells which creates a line break in the SIF file. This line break will halt the import at that point in the SIF for many systems including Worksheet. The item(s) with this problem are usually hand entered line items or specials in the Worksheet. Most commonly text that has been copied and pasted from another application into Worksheet that might have carried over special formatting characters including carriage returns or line feeds during the copy and paste process.
Solution:
The solution involves identifying the problem line item(s) and correcting the formatting so that the text is all on a single line in the Worksheet field. In the above example, where we know the original Worksheet contained 40 items, but only 9 items came back in when opening the SIF, tells us that line item 9 in the original Worksheet file has a problem. Most commonly the issue is found in the part description field but could be any field containing characters such as a Tag or Alias field, or even the Option lines.
One trick is to expand the width of the Worksheet fields and verify the text in the fields stays on a single line.
In the image below we can see that in the part description after the word "feed" the rest of the text is on a second line in the field. There is a carriage return or line feed at the point indicated in red. This will create a problem in the exported SIF file that usually halts the import at that point.
To fix the issue on this line item, position your cursor after the word feed and press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete the return and bring the text up, so it's all contained on a single line as seen below.
Once the line item has been corrected, you can create a new SIF export and test it by importing it back in and verifying all the line items now import correctly. In a large worksheet, it is not uncommon that more than a single line item could have this issue. Sticking with our example of a 40-line worksheet, let's say after correcting this line item, you open up the new SIF and maybe now 25-line items appear. In that case you would want to inspect line item 25 of the original worksheet for similar problems, correct them, and then create a new SIF. Repeat this process until all the line items have been identified and corrected, and you have all 40-line items accounted for.