Create tweet splitter

dori2o

I'm looking to see how difficult it would be to create a twitter splitter.

What I mean is to be able to create a programme that will automatically split text into 140 character (or less) sections which can then be posted on twitter.

I know there are already programmes available to do this, but the company I am looking ointo this for is concerned about data security and the potentialfor data to be stored by the websites offerring this service. We also don't want an all in one service which automatically submits the text to twitter.

I was wondering if it would be possible to do this via Excel? To be able to limit the number of characters in a cell (which I know is possible) and instead of an error message being issued once 140 characters has been passed just have the text automatically move to the cell below. This text could then be copied/pasted into the social media dashboard that the business uses (Hootsuite).


If not could someone direct me to a simple way of creating such a programme which would allow me to do this. It hasto be simple to create as I have no programming experience and the HTML I know is that which is usedon forums to change the text.

Somebody suggested using Google forms but I've never used it before.

Many thanks in advance.

debitcardmayhem

dori2o wrote: »

I'm looking to see how difficult it would be to create a twitter splitter.

What I mean is to be able to create a programme that will automatically split text into 140 character (or less) sections which can then be posted on twitter.

I know there are already programmes available to do this, but the company I am looking ointo this for is concerned about data security and the potentialfor data to be stored by the websites offerring this service. We also don't want an all in one service which automatically submits the text to twitter.

I was wondering if it would be possible to do this via Excel? To be able to limit the number of characters in a cell (which I know is possible) and instead of an error message being issued once 140 characters has been passed just have the text automatically move to the cell below. This text could then be copied/pasted into the social media dashboard that the business uses (Hootsuite).


If not could someone direct me to a simple way of creating such a programme which would allow me to do this. It hasto be simple to create as I have no programming experience and the HTML I know is that which is usedon forums to change the text.

Somebody suggested using Google forms but I've never used it before.

Many thanks in advance.

Huh ? once the two hats use twitter it is stored forever

Tigsteroonie

dori2o wrote: »

I was wondering if it would be possible to do this via Excel? To be able to limit the number of characters in a cell (which I know is possible) and instead of an error message being issued once 140 characters has been passed just have the text automatically move to the cell below. This text could then be copied/pasted into the social media dashboard that the business uses (Hootsuite).

If you type all the tweet into one cell, you could use the =LEFT and =MID commands to take the first 140 characters into one cell, the next 140 characters into the next cell, the next 140 into a third cell etc.

But that would split words across tweets so you could end up with tweets reading rather stupi
dly, if you get my drift.

dori2o

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Huh ? once the two hats use twitter it is stored forever

Thats fine, but there is no telling who owns the sites these tweet splitters are hosted on and what information they are storing, at least when posting on twitter you know who holds and can see the data.

debitcardmayhem

dori2o wrote: »

Thats fine, but there is no telling who owns the sites these tweet splitters are hosted on and what information they are storing, at least when posting on twitter you know who holds and can see the data.

You are arguing with semantics, once the tweet is posted who knows who copies and then disseminates it, and where or whoever stores them ad infinitum.

Use a batch script using Dos, powershell , python, perl or excel etc...

Really ?

dori2o

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

If you type all the tweet into one cell, you could use the =LEFT and =MID commands to take the first 140 characters into one cell, the next 140 characters into the next cell, the next 140 into a third cell etc.

But that would split words across tweets so you could end up with tweets reading rather stupi
dly, if you get my drift.

That wouldn't be a problem as I'm assuming that I could set the character count at say 125/130 which would leave room to adjust the tweet as required.

Thanks

dori2o

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

You are arguing with semantics, once the tweet is posted who knows who copies and then disseminates it, and where or whoever stores them ad infinitum.

Use a batch script using Dos, powershell , python, perl or excel etc...

Really ?

I know that. I'm just providing the details of the brief I've been given.

If it were down tome i'd just use an existng web based programme.

dori2o

So I went down the route of the spreadsheet using the MID formula. i've been ableto split text into 125 character sections.

What I'd like to be able to do if possible is have the sheet automatically mark the splits after the text has finished, i.e. 1/1, 1/2, 2/2, 1/3 etc etc depending on how many parts the text is split into.

Would there be a way of doing this or is this beyond the scope of a spreadsheet.

Tigsteroonie

dori2o wrote: »

What I'd like to be able to do if possible is have the sheet automatically mark the splits after the text has finished, i.e. 1/1, 1/2, 2/2, 1/3 etc etc depending on how many parts the text is split into.

Would there be a way of doing this or is this beyond the scope of a spreadsheet.

I don't have a version of Excel at home so I cannot really play with this but ... Presuming you don't know how many cells that the tweet has split into:

You could use a COUNTIF to determine the number of cells that contain text after splitting (which is the bit after the '/' character);

You could use a CONCATENATE to attach the split tweet to a space, number, '/', and the result of the above countif.

This all sounds a bit clumsy and I am sure there are probably cleaner methods but it could solve the problem for you until someone comes up with a better idea.

Lakeuk

Yes can easily be done in excel using MID function, not a solution I'd go with as it doesn't take account for splits mid word. This can be improved on by also including the SEARCH function to find the position of a word to present the text more cleanly. I've made an example on Google Sheets

Why would the client want to do this, generally not a good idea to message across multiple tweets, better to have one tweet with a link to more detail.

dori2o

Thanks for all the help.

One final question.

I've looked on the web and I don't think this is possible, but for those excel experts out there, is it possible to push data from one cell to another, without having to input a formula into the cell that the text is to be 'pushed' to.

Reason being once the text is split the person using the toool needs to copy that text and as this cannot be done from a locked cell there is the potential for the person using the tool to delete the MID formula from the cell which displays the text and therefore stop the splitter from working.

OR, failing that is there a way to protectthe cell and allow text to be copied from it?