Tip of the Week

Tip for: 10.25.2004

Using an Export to Globally Add Information

Summary: If you have information that you would like to globally add to your data, but can't find a utility to do it, consider exporting information into a spreadsheet. A specific example that has come to our attention is adding purchase cost information to item data so that values on the Super Summary report are accurate for insurance purposes, etc.

To add a Purchase Price to Item Records:

Archive your data prior to making these kinds of changes to your data. It is also wise to do the following steps by sections that would be around the same average cost (Fiction, Easy, etc).

Go to File on the menu bar and select Export.

Set the various drop-downs as follows:
- Export Type: Export Items
- Operations: Tab Delimited
- Sort By: Copy Call Number
- Character Set: Standard (ASCII)
- Select By: Copy Call Number
- Starting with: (beginning call number of the group i.e. FIC a)
- Ending with: (ending call number of the group i.e. FIC ZZZ)

Click on Select Fields tab.

Click on the symbol at the bottom that shows the checkmark with a red line through it.

Click on the symbol right before Barcode and Purchase Cost to change them to blue checkmarks.

Click on OK.

Click on Run.

Name the file and save it to the desktop.

Open Excel and then the file you exported. Follow the steps Excel walks you through to get your file to display on the spreadsheet.

Delete all lines containing a price in the second column.

Click on the B at the top of the second column.

Go to Edit on the menu bar and select Replace.

Fill in "Find what field" with 0 and the "Replace With field" with the desired price. We suggest the same as the Default Replacement Value.

Click on Replace All.

Note: Another way to fill in the column is to enter the desired amount in the first line. Click on the B at the top of the second column. Click on Fill from the Edit menu and then select Down. This will put the amount listed in each cell of the column.

Save the file, click to replace, and click Yes to preserve the format.

Close Excel and when asked if you want to save the file, click Don't Save.

Drag and drop the file on the Alexandria window.

The Data Import window will open.

Click on the Run arrow on the bottom right.

Thank you,
The Alexandria Staff Librarians