I have a client that has corrupted their files by constantly force quiting out of them. I am now going to import their data from the bad files into clean clones. I was planning on importing directly from the old files.

Someone told me that I should first export the data into text files and then import the text files into the new clones. The reason - exporting the data into text files removes any corrupt data by removing the RTF formmating that (when corrupt data is present) removes the corruption from the data.

Is that true?

It's true that going to a text file will remove your formatting and put your information in a basic, comma delimited format.

This also gives you a chance to browse through it and clean up anything that doesn't look right.

If you import the corrupt info to the new clones remember - garbage in - garbage out.

Thanks for the response. I've been hearing a lot about this and on both sides. Finally, Darren Terry (Formally from FMP) sent me this:

"When I was with Tech Support, I used to advise this type of "text cleaning" (i.e. exporting first to a text file, then importing from the text file). I have since learned from engineering that there should be no difference between that and importing directly from a FileMaker file (though I can't remember who in engineering told me that). I think they posted such to this list at one point..."

I finished the import this past weekend and so far everything is working fine for the client.