RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
Slide 1
Text Captions: The Global Edit function allows you to modify
information for a group of selected references.
Global Edit is where you can:
August 2008
Slide 2
Text Captions: For example, let's add the descriptor "Classical Writing"
to all the records in the Hamlet folder.
Since we're adding it to the entire folder contents, select All in List (you
can also just select specific references or a page of references)...
- add information to a field
- move information from one field to another
- delete information from a field
- even search for a specific term and replace it with another
making this feature is an efficient way of making modifications to
multiple references in one easy step.
Slide 3
Text Captions: After choosing the references to modify, click the Global
Edit button...
Slide 4
Text Captions: The Global Edit feature is divided into four areas:
- Add (the default area)
- Move
- Delete
- Replace
Click on the tabs to access the different areas (we'll look at each of
these later in this tutorial).
Let's continue adding a descriptor to the Hamlet references...
Select the field to modify by clicking on the drop-down.
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
Slide 5
Text Captions: These Electronic Source Related Fields are really
important -- especially if you are citing electronic information in your
bibliography.
There's even an option in the Customize section of the Tools area that
allows you to have these Electronic Source Related Fields
automatically display on the Import Results page, giving you the option
to edit the data after every import (whether the import is from an online
data vendor, from an RSS feed or importing data from the RefWorks'
Search Online Catalog or Database area).
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Text Captions: There is also an option to establish a default Source
Type (Print or Electronic), which impacts what information prints in your
bibliography.
Here's where you set the Global Edit option...
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
Slide 9
Text Captions: Here's an example of how it works...
After references are imported, the four fields are displayed -- ready for
global editing.
RefWorks will try to fill in what information it can...
You can fill in the rest. In some cases, you might not fill out all four
fields (perhaps the references are from multiple databases). You can
just fill in what is common to all the references imported.
Back to the Global Edit area to continue adding our descriptor...
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
Slide 13
August 2008
Slide 14
Text Captions: Type the information you want to add...
If you have selected Author, Descriptor or one of the Periodical fields,
the Term Assistant will appear.
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
Slide 17
August 2008
Slide 18
Text Captions: Select an option to use if the field you are modifying
already has data in it. The three options are:
- Append to Existing Data (adds the new information to the existing
data in the field)
- Overwrite Existing Data (what you currently have in the field will be
replaced)
- Leave Existing Data Alone (if the field contains ANY data the global
edit feature will skip over that particular reference).
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
Slide 21
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Text Captions: We'll take a look at one of the references to see the
descriptor we just added...
Slide 24
Text Captions: Here it is.
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
Slide 25
Text Captions: Let's briefly look at the other areas in the Global Edit
feature, starting with the Move area...
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Text Captions: The Move area allows you to take data from one field
and move it to another.
For example, let's take all the comments from the User 1 field in the
eight references in the Hamlet folder and move them to the Notes field.
First, select the field to move data from...
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
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Text Captions: Then select the field to move the data to.
Slide 32
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
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Text Captions: There are three options for handling the data, just like in
the Add area. In this case, we won't overwrite anything in the Notes
field, we'll just add the User 1 contents to Notes for each reference
selected.
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
Slide 37
Text Captions: Note: If you are moving data that has text attributes
(bold, italic, underline, superscript or subscript) to a field that does not
support text attributes, the text attributes will not appear in the field you
moved the data to.
On to the Delete area....
Slide 38
Text Captions: The Delete area is where you can remove all the data
from a field (or from four fields if you choose Electronic Source Related
Fields).
After you select the references you want to modify, simply select the
field you want to delete the contents of...
Click the Delete button and any data in the field is erased.
Slide 39
Text Captions: Now to the Replace area...
The Replace area allows you to search for a word in a single field or in
ALL fields and replace it with another word. After selecting the records
to modify, you either select a single field from the drop-down, the
Electronic Source Related Fields, or All Fields to search and replace.
Then, enter the word to Find followed by the word to Replace it with.
Here's an important bit of information -- the Find what field will search
for embedded terms UNLESS you select the Whole Word option. So if
you enter "art" in the Find what field, it will search (and replace) "part",
"heart", "smart", etc. Besides the Whole word option, there's also a
Match case option you can select. Note: Whole words are indicated by
spaces before and after it or if it is the first word or the last word. For
example, if you want to replace the word “blood” with "plasma", it will
replace "blood" in “ the red blood cell” but not in “red blood:
hemoglobin” because of the colon immediately after "blood".
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©RefWorks 2008
RefWorks Advanced Features – Editing Multiple
References
August 2008
Slide 41
Text Captions: You now know how to efficiently modify a group of
records using Global Edit.
If you want to continue the tutorial, select another lesson from the
menu.
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©RefWorks 2008