David,
I realize this is months after your post, but I am trying to do the same thing. I just figured out a way around this, unless you have found a better way by now. I created a single line field, in addition to the linked field. I imported the data into the single line field. Then, I selected the entire column of that single line field and pasted it into the linked field. I hope you either found something by now, or this helps.
