[ken]

Oh, missed this one:

> I first tried to use Split String to break up the key and value fields, but found I couldn't enter a tab character either via \t or by pasting it. I saw a note that said not to use Split String for CSV or TSV, so I next tried the TSV operation.

That's strange. You should be able to paste a tab character in a flag value. You can also type it directly, using the Mac way to enter tab characters in text fields: option-tab.