Mass Sightings Change
This facility allows you to make the same change to more than one sighting record. For example you may want to upgrade a batch of pending sightings to normal status, you may need to change the species for a batch of records if you later realise you have selected the wrong species or sub-species for the country you were visiting.
To make the changes to Date and Times recorded or the total count of species
Click the Date/Times Count tab. The following screen will display.
Select the fields you wish to change by clicking the check box to the left of the Field labels. The data entry rules for the field are the same as for entering data for a normal trip or sighting.
In the First and Last Date fields you can change just a portion of the date e.g. if you put the year in correctly for a whole batch of records you can correct the year portion of the date without affecting the day and month. Specify which portions of the date you want to change by checking the Day, Month and Year check boxes.
In the First and Last Date fields you can change just a portion of the date e.g. if you put the year in correctly for a whole batch of records you can correct the year portion of the date without affecting the day and month. Specify which portions of the date you want to change by checking the Day, Month and Year check boxes.
To make the changes to Locations, Species, Observers, Status and Ages
Click the Locations, Species, Observers, Status and Ages tab. The following screen will display.
Select the fields you wish to change by clicking the check box to the left of the Field labels. The data entry rules for the field are the same as for entering data for a normal trip or sighting.
To make changes to Notes
Click the Notes tab. The following screen will display.
It is possible to change the contents of the sighting notes either by completely replacing them or by replacing the text which matches the supplied text string.
To replace the entire notes text select the option Replace All and type the new text in the Replacement Text field. To replace part of the text select the Replace Matching Text option and key the text string which is to be replaced in the Existing Text field. Type the replacement text in the Replacement Text field. To add new text to the end of the notes select the option Add to end and type the new text in the Text field.
When you have selected the fields you want to change and entered the data to be changed click on the OK button to make the changes.
Making the changes
Once you have selected all the fields to be changed and entered all the required changes, click the OK button.
Please note that if the change affects a large number of sightings it can be very slow. Large changes can be sped up by de-selecting the Automatic list update check box, in this case you should manually recalculate the lists after the change has completed.
Making a mass change can possibly result in duplicate records being detected. By default you will be prompted to resolve the duplicates, for instructions on dealing with duplicate sightings see Duplicate Sightings Resolution. You can automatically skip updating records which would become duplicates by selecting the Skip Duplicates option, this will allow the changes to be completed without any further screen interaction.
A confirmation will be displayed
Click the Yes button to make the changes.
Closing the form without making any changes
To cancel the update request click on 
or press the Esc key.