How do I make identical changes to a large number of records at one time?

This FAQ assumes familiarity with the Captured Keystroke facility in RECORDER/AREV.
(See below if you are not familiar with this.)

Whilst you can make a number of repeat edits or actions in RECORDER using "Captured keystrokes" this technique is not really practical for edits of 1000 records or more. So what if you have 20,000 records which need editing and don't have access to the global editing facility of a full develpment version of AREV?

The answer is quite simple..   ......edit RECORDER's captured keystroke instructions!

Lets say you've got 20,000 records on RECORDER and have entered a site against each, but have forgotten to put in a map reference in each record. (Yes, it has been known!) What do you do?

Well, you realise that if you could make a Select List of these records you could browse through each in turn and select the default grid reference for each site by pressing [Return] at the grid reference field, and then [F9] to save the record and move on to the next one, and so on, and so on.

Simple, but 20,000 times?

The answer is to run a "Captured Keystroke" series to do the task just ten times and then edit it accordingly. (The keystrokes you would use to stamp in a default grid reference in an empty grid ref field and ensure that the cursor was in the right position to stamp the relevant data into the next record would be:   [return] [up] [F9] [return] )

Having made your captured keystroke series, Now go to AREV Main Menu and follow:
 Utilities - Developer - Capture - Modify

Now type in the name of your Capture Keystroke set and press [return] to edit it. You'll see the repeat keystrokes as shown below:

{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}
{UP}{F9}{CR}

You now need to select a block of text containing these repetitive commands, cut this into AREV's buffer, then repeatedly paste it in, again and again.

To do this, use Ctrl-B to mark the first line in a block of text (it turns red), then move the cursor to the last line you want copied. Pressing Ctrl-B again will now highlight the entire block in red. Cut this to the buffer with Ctrl-F3.

Move to a new line at the end of the sequence and press Ctrl-F4 repeatedly to add these into the keystroke set. When you've had enough, F9 will save it. (Depending on the type of repetitive editing you are doing, you may feel it is advisable to keep track of how many edits you are actually putting into your Captured Keystroke set)

Now go back to your record selection in RECORDER and run the keystroke series on your record selection, having first backed up your data, of course. (Always advisable before making any serious changes to your data)

This method works fine on both a run time and a full development version of RECORDER/AREV.

CAPTURED KEYSTROKES
For anyone unfamiliar with Captured Keystrokes, you first need to determine the key presses you need to repeat again and again to attain the desired edits on a Select List of records. Once you've determined the correct sequence, halt, then press Alt-0 (zero, not O) to start capturing your keystrokes . Type a single character letter as a name for the sequence you are capturing. Then repeat the sequence of keystrokes, say, ten times. Press Alt-0 again to cease capturing keystrokes and to save the sequence. To play the sequence back, ensure the required records are selected as an active Select List and that the cursor is in the appropriate field. Press Alt-9 and type in the name of the sequence given earlier. The captured strokes are then repeated.  Editing any select list of records in this way is potentially quite damaging if you do it incorrectly. Check that the edits you have done are actually what you intended.

Nick Moyes

[Home] [Membership] [Committee] [Events] [Newsletter] [LRCs] [Software] [Links]

This site maintained by NFBR website manager.   ©NFBR 2006
Click here for anti-spam and links policy. Scripts are only used in our visitor counter and for minor visual effect on Home and Membership pages.