Importing XML Files to Excel

You may have noticed the PACER sites for the Circuit Courts give you the option of downloading data from the documents in XML files. These files can contain as many as 60 different fields. You can import all of these into a single Excel spreadsheet by following these steps.

1. Go to the Developer tab, and select Source.

2. Click where it says, 'XML Maps' towards the bottom of the XML Source window which opens.

3. In the new dialog box that opens, click Add . . . and then select one of the many XML files you may have downloaded.

4. You should see a window indicating that the XML source does not have a schema. Let Excel create one based on the XML file and click OK.

5. Select cell A1 on your worksheet, and then the In the XML Source pane, right click on 'caseSummary' so all of the fields are highlighted and then choose Map Element

6. The fields from the XML file will appear in the first row. Go back to the Developer tab and click on 'Import' and select all of the XML files you downloaded from the PACER site for a Circuit Court.

7. Presto! Your worksheet will load with thousands of data points for these fields:

caseNumber

dateFiled

natureOfSuit

dateTerminated

shortTitle

origCourt

type

subType

subSubType

district

division

caseNumber2

leadCaseNumber

caseNumberLink

leadCaseNumberLink

dateFiled3

dateJudgment

dateJudgmentEOD

dateNOAFiled

dateDecided

dateRecdCoa

dateSentence

leadCaseNumber4

memberCaseNumber

associatedType

dateStart

dateEnd

panelType

enbanc

panelists

dateHearing

dateComplete

dateDecision

info

prisonerNumber

type5

firstName

middleName

lastName

generation

suffix

title

email

fax

address1

address2

address3

office

unit

room

businessPhone

personalPhone

city

state

zip

terminationDate

noticeInfo

caption

dateFiled6

text

docLink