accessing data in Excel files

[rwhitlock]

I have many Excel files. Each sheet is one episode of a show, listing all music tracks used in the show. What I want to do is find how many times a track has been used in all shows within a given time frame, or within a given series of shows.

Can I look at several Excel files without having to import them one by one and add date/episode data? We already have a process by which we create these Excel files...I'm hoping to do what I want without having to create a whole new complex process, just use what we have in place.

[Fenton]

I would think to put all the Excel files in a folder. Then, after listing the files in the folder, loop through them, importing each into FileMaker. There are a few methods to do this, on a Mac I'd use AppleScript. Then you've got all the data in one place and a search is easy.

[rwhitlock]

Okay, thanks...so now, I can't script it to open the Excel files, in either an AppleScript or FileMaker script...it only wants to open FileMaker files, can't figure how to specify the script to open Excel files in FileMaker.

Also, the files don't contain the episode number within the file, only in the file name. Is there a way to create a new field and insert the file name that the record was imported from?