[ic] EXCEL formating problems

[Hostmaster]

Hello List Members,
While researching the list to see if it could retain the formatting of
certain cells (with bold font) of the Excel Spreadsheet (converted to
tab-delimited products.txt) when importing into IC using the Import Feature
in the Admin UI, I found this post from Fri, 26 Jan 2001 11:05:12 -0800:
(http://www.icdevgroup.org/pipermail/interchange-users/2001-January/004216.h
tml):
[BEGIN POST]
If you're using EXCEL make sure you add;

Database products   EXCEL   1

this will get rid of any EXCEL formating problems such as quotes and
CR/LF and other problems associated with EXCEL during importing or file
transfering

Then do a re-import or better yet file transfer all the data and wa-la
the data appears as intended.
-- 
J. Scott Andreas :)
Programmer/Webintegrator
e-mail: scotta at homer.learnserv.com
phone: 1-800-877-9378 ext. 146
fax: (541) 744-2056
      ---    __o
     ---   _-\<,_
      --- (_)/ (_)

[END POST]

I thought this was a very useful post, so I attempted to apply it to a
catalog I've built.
But I wasn't clear on the following line from the suggested procedure:
Database products   EXCEL   1

Using IC 4.9.3, from within the Admin UI I navigated to
Tables>preferences>Database.
I found the resulting page:

[BEGIN RESULTS]

Entries matching "pref_group=Database"

  code                                                Variable
pref_group
  MV_DEFAULT_SEARCH_DB      1                      Database
  MYSQL
Database
  ORACLE
Database
  PGSQL
Database
  SQLDSN
Database
  SQLPASS
Database
  SQLUSER
Database

 [END RESULTS]

QUESTION:  I saw the option to "add an entry" at this page.  Would this be
where I would add EXCEL with the variable 1, to create a new line in the
above results that would look like:
  code              Variable           pref_group
  EXCEL         1                      Database

If so, where is the "products" from the suggested  "Database products
EXCEL   1"  found in the above preferences Editor?

Finally, with regards to my original search, it appears that EXCEL will not
retain any text formatting (such as "bold", or "italics") when imported into
Interchange.  I have to use EXCEL because the client won't learn SQL or
MYSQL, or anything new.  : - )

This Email is all nicely laid out in rows (for the table examples above).  I
hope it stays that way in transit.  If not, apologies in advance for what
may seem to be a scrambled mess.

Best regards,
Michael G.