Database file manipluation-data mining for beginnners

[TallTravel]

I have thousands of records in a crude set of .txt and .csv format. My goal is to get the core data into a " proper " contact management database engine for the building of a large customer database.

My process thus far has been:

Use Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel, or both, to massage the way the data is formatted, then save it back into either .txt or .csv format for import. Fields are messed up, it takes time, I have to insert commas into the text sometimes to get the fields separated, etc.

There are probably 4000-5000 names, e mail addresses, and company names to extract from these files.

Goal:

Clean database files with clearly delineated fields for use by a common database package.

Clearly, this is going to be time consuming, but it is worth it for me in the end. Any specific suggestions for the way I can massage the data for a common format?

[EzyStvy]

Copy n Paste would work for sure

Each contact management database engine will probably have it's own format requirements. You'll need to decide on that before anything else....