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Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance & Tracking System (PCIT) United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
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Tips

Tip 1:  How to cut & paste Distinguishing Marks from Excel.

Data must be in a single row in Excel. If your data is in a column, you must first do the following to convert to a row:

  1. Highlight the column to convert, and click Edit...Copy.
  2. Open a new sheet in Excel and click on cell A1.
  3. Click on Edit...Paste Special. Click on the Transpose checkbox and click Ok.
  4. Save the sheet to a comma delimited file by doing the following:
    1. Click File...Save As.
    2. Enter your file name and destination information. Saving to Desktop is always easiest.
    3. Under Save as type, choose CSV (comma delimited).
  5. Go to your new saved file, either on your Desktop or via Windows Explorer.
  6. Right click on the file, and choose Open with.... and select Notepad.
  7. Verify your data. Use Find/Replace to remove unnecessary data, like double commas, or quote marks.
  8. If you made changes to your data file, save it.
  9. When you are ready to move the data into PCIT, simply open the file again with Notepad, and cut & paste into PCIT.

Tip 2:  Storing previously typed text in your browser.

Browsers allow previously typed form text to be saved in their settings. Once you begin typing text, your browser remembers similar text that had been used before for that entry and offers a shortcut to enter this text again.

Note:  These steps to change your browser settings will only work if those features have not been disabled due to your organization's IT security policies.

Internet Explorer:

Internet Explorer screen shot
  1. Under Tools, select Internet Options.
  2. Select the Content tab and click the "Settings" button under the AutoComplete section.
  3. Under Use AutoComplete for, check the checkbox for "Forms".
  4. Click the OK button in the AutoComplete Settings box to save and close.
  5. Click the OK button in the Internet Options box to save and close.

Mozilla Firefox:

Firefox screen shot
  1. Under Tools, select Options.
  2. Select the Privacy tab.
  3. Under History, check the checkbox for "Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar".
  4. Click the OK button in the Options box to save and close.

Apple Safari:

Safari screen shot
  1. Under Edit, select Preferences.
  2. Select the AutoFill tab.
  3. Under AutoFill web forms, check the checkbox for "Other forms".
  4. Click the X at the top right corner of the Preferences box to save and close.