Readerware Bulk Editor Wizard

Another powerful feature of Readerware is this search and replace facility. You can easily apply a change to one or more items in your database.

These are the basic steps:

  1. Identify the items you want to change
  2. Identify the database column you want to update
  3. Enter the new data
  4. Run Readerware replace
  5. Check the results

Item Selection

The first step is to select the items you want to update. Readerware gives you a number of options, some based on the current search results. If using one of these options you must perform a search before launching the Readerware Replace Wizard. This will establish the items you want to change.

On this panel you can select on of the following choices:


ISBN/UPC Input

If you selected the Input option on the last panel, the ISBN/UPC input panel is displayed next. Otherwise you go straight to database column selection. You tell Readerware which items to look for by entering the ISBN of the book, the UPC of a CD, video etc. There are two ways to do this, you can simply scan the item with a barcode reader or type in the data, with or without the punctuation.

If you are typing in CD and DVD barcodes, you must ensure that you type in all digits. A US barcode currently contains 12 digits, a European barcode contains 13.

In the above example, you would enter 731458917724, you must include the digits to the left and right of the barcode.

Using a bar code scanner is often the fastest way to enter the list of items to update. Each day more and more companies make low cost bar code readers available to consumers. Check the bar code reader section on the Readerware web site for more information.

To enter the ISBN or UPC manually, simply type it in and press the enter key. Readerware will then validate the data and if valid, move it to the list below. If invalid, Readerware will display an error message. Readerware also uses audible queues to indicate a valid or invalid item number, so you don't have to keep looking at your screen each time you enter an item.

Normally when Readerware indicates that an ISBN is invalid, it means that you typed in the number incorrectly. Simply correct the mistake and try again. Very rarely Readerware will display the error, even when you entered the ISBN exactly as printed on a book. This is because the publisher included an invalid ISBN on the book. This does occasionally happen, especially on older books when the ISBN was new. You can tell Readerware to accept this ISBN anyway and try and find it by clicking on the Accept button in the dialog.

To scan in a barcode, refer to the instructions  that came with your scanner. Simply ensure that the input field has the focus and scan. Readerware then receives the data, converts it if necessary and adds it to the list.

To delete an item from the list, select it and hit the Delete key.

If the Allow Duplicates option is on, all books with the same ISBN/UPC will be updated. For example if you use the replace wizard to edit the title format for a movie, the title will be updated on all items with this UPC.
 

Rerunning replace

You can rerun Readerware replace, maybe you want to change several fields in each record. You don't have to scan all the items again, simply hit the Reload button to reload you last item list.

Using a file of ISBN, UPC or bar code scans

Readerware can also read ISBN and barcode scans from a file. Select the Load List button and a file selection dialog is displayed. Select the file and click on Open. The file must be a standard text file and contain one ISBN or bar code scan per line. The ISBN can be entered with or without the hyphens. Readerware will then replace the contents of the list with the contents of the file. You can use this feature to prepare a list of items to update ahead of time either in Readerware or another program like a text editor.

Using a batch barcode reader

Readerware supports several batch barcode readers including the LaserChamp (Flic), Symbol CS-1504 and CS-2000 readers. Batch barcode readers are not connected directly to your computer, You can scan barcodes into the reader and at a later time, upload them into Readerware. This means that you can take the barcode reader to your shelves rather than drag your books, CDs and videos to your PC. To upload barcodes from a batch barcode reader, click on the Upload button.

Saving entered barcodes

You can optionally save the item list you just entered before continuing. Normally after you have entered your data you continue through the wizard and update your items. But maybe you are at a remote location and do not have access to an internet connection. You can save the data you entered to a file for later use. Click on the Save List button and select the location and name for your file. To use the saved file, start the replace wizard again and click on the Load List button
 

Column Selection

Your last task is to identify the database column to change and the new value. You can only change a single column with Readerware replace.

You will see a drop down list of all database columns. Select the one you want to update. An editable field is then displayed and you can enter or select the new value. If you don't enter a value, the replace will erase the current contents.

When you select the column you want to change, an appropriate editor is displayed where you can enter the new data. For most fields, this is an entry field or a list. But Readerware also allows you to perform some very powerful operations on some columns,
 

Title

When you select the title column you can:
Enter a new title

Reformat titles from "The Title" to "Title, The".

Reformat titles from "A Title" to "Title, A".

Reformat titles from "An Title" to "Title, An".

Uppercase titles
 

Value

When you select the value column you can:
Enter a new value

Adjust existing values by a set percentage. For example, suppose you want to value your collection at 25% less that the Amazon retail price. You could use Readerware auto-catalog or auto-update to extract the price from Amazon. Then you would use the replace function to set the value to 75% of the current value. Readerware will update the value on each selected item.
 

Copies

When you select the copies column you can:
Enter a new value

Increment copies by the specified amount.

Decrement copies by the specified amount.
 

User Number

When you select the user number column you can:
Enter a new user number.

Automatically generate user numbers based on a pattern. You specify the pattern, the starting value and the increment. You use question marks in the pattern to identify where Readerware should insert the number.

To start with a simple example. If you specify a pattern of ?, starting value of 10000 and an increment of 100, Readerware will generate user numbers of 10100, 10200, 10300 etc.

You can specify other text in the pattern which is used as is. You can specify multiple consecutive question marks to control the width of the generated number. If you specify a pattern of ?????? each number will have at least 6 digits, Readerware adds leading zeros if necessary.

The following table lists some examples:
 
 
Pattern
Starting Value
Increment
Numbers




? 10000 10 10010, 10020, 10030
????? 100 10 00100, 00110, 00120
TOM-?????-BK 100 100 TOM-00100-BK, TOM-00200-BK, TOM-00300-BK
BN-? 100 1 BN-100, BN-101, BN-102


Images columns

When you select one of the image columns you can:
Resize the images to your preferred size as set in preferences.

Verify images. Readerware scans all the images to make sure they are valid. If the image is too large, it will be resized. If the image is invalid, it will be deleted.

Delete the images from the database. Bulk Editor changes can not be undone, so make sure you really want to delete all your images. Backup your database first.

Verification Page

Next up is the verification page. This is your last chance to change your settings prior to running your replace. A quick summary of your choices is listed. Note that your changes are applied to the database immediately, so review your selections to make sure they are correct. Click on Next if you are ready to go. Click on Back if you want to change your choices.
 

Replacing Page

When you reach this page, your replace is running. You will see a progress window that will update as Readerware processes your items. In the background Readerware also updates the list each time an item is processed. If you want, you can move the progress window out of the way to see more of the replace activity. Simply click on the title bar and drag the window out of the way. The progress window will close automatically once the replace completes. Don't hit the Cancel button though, this will abort the replace.

Initially each item in the list will have a question mark icon displayed next to it. This indicates that Readerware has not yet processed this item. As it processes each item, Readerware changes the icon to indicate the results. The icons are:

- This indicates that the item has been changed
- The item was not changed
- The item could not be found in your database. This can only happen when you input an item list
In addition to the icons, Readerware adds the title to each item. This is a very handy way to identify the items, it effectively gives you their location on your shelves.

You can save the item list by clicking on the Save List button.

When you have reviewed the status of each item, click on the Next button to proceed to the final page of this wizard.
 

Replace Complete Page

This page displays the overall statistics:
Note that you can use the Back and Next buttons to toggle between the results and the auto-catalog summary page. When you are done, click the Finish  button. Readerware will then display all the updated items in the main window. You can optionally review and edit these updated items. Click on the toolbar browse button to return to the full database display.

This statistics information and a complete item by item listing is also written to a log file, if user logging is enabled. You will find this file in your Documents->Readerware->Logs folder. You can view this file in any text editor

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