This facility is found under Utilities in the main menu.
Note: This facility should be used only with data sets that are currently backed up.
In the example shown above, the user has many records assigned directly to the State, Washington, with a Key Word of Bowerman Basin. She decided that she will bird that location frequently, so she created a Site named Bowerman Basin. In the dialog, she enters a Current Place of Washington, and a Current Key Word of Bowerman Basin.
The operation will then select all, and only, the records assigned DIRECTLY to Washington, with a Key Word of Bowerman Basin in the comments. To be sure she understands exactly which records will be modified, she can click the View Selected Records button.
Note: for a Current Key Word entry to match with a key word in the comments, the Key Word in the comments cannot be imbedded in another word. Example: with a Current Key Word criteria of percil, the comment "Seen at Percil" would match -- the record would be modified. The comment "The bird was supercilious," would not match -- the record would not be modified. (Case does not matter) This restriction ensures that only records with unambiguous, specific location Key Words are selected.
For the New Place, she selected the Site she just created, Bowerman Basin. Since she needs no further definition of the location, she leaves the New Key Word blank.
When she clicks Execute, all records assigned DIRECTLY to Washington, that also have a Key Word of Bowerman Basin in the comments, will be re-assigned to the new Site, Bowerman Basin. No additional Key Word will be inserted in the comment. Now, if she had also checked the Delete Current Key Word box, during the operation the Key Word Bowerman Basin would be deleted from the comments because it is no longer needed.
For an inverse kind of operation, if she had sightings assigned to the Site, Schnurdle Pond, and she doesn't bird there any more, she can have all those records re-assigned to King County, with a Key Word of Schnurdle Pond. Then, in the Places Tables, she can delete the Site, Schnurdle Pond, removing unnecessary clutter form her Sites table. In this case, remember that reports and listings can still be run for Schnurdle Pond by simply specifiying it in the Key Word criterion.
In the first example, above, records assigned to Seattle would not be included in the modifications. They are only indirectly assigned to Washington by linkage. The only records considered will be those where the user chose Washington from the States table when the records were entered in the database.
Although this facility is intended just to change Place assignments, because it handles Key Words it can be used to do mass Key Word changes. You see, if you use the same Current Place and New Place, you don't move the records at all. But the Key Word functions are still active. So, you can delete the Current Key Word and/or, optionally, add a new Key Word, without changing the Place at all!