Editing Multiple References

Editing multiple Editing multiple referencesreferences

The Global Edit function allows you to modifyinformation for a group of selected references.

This feature allows you to:

- add information to a field- move information from one field to another

- delete information from a field - search for a specific term and replace it with another.

It is an efficient way of making modifications to multiple references in one easy step.

Editing Multiple ReferencesEditing Multiple References

For example, let's add the descriptor ‘Natural selection’to all the records in the Darwin folder.

Since we're adding the descriptor to the entire folder contents, select ‘All in List’ (youcan also just select specific references or a page of references)...


After choosing the references to modify, click the GlobalEdit button...


The Global Edit feature is divided into four areas:- Add (the default area)- Move- Delete- Replace


To add a descriptor to all the references in the Darwin folder...

Select the ‘Field to Add Data’, ‘Specific Field’ and click on the drop-down.

Choose Descriptors.


In addition to being able to globally add a single field across multiple references there is also an option to edit four fields of informaton related to references gathered electronically.

When you select ‘Electronic Source Related Fields’, the screen refreshes to display: Data source, Database, Links and Retrieved Date as you will see on the next slide.


In the ‘Field to Add Data’, select the ‘Electronic Source Related Fields’ option.

These four fields (Data Source, Database, Links, Retrieved Date) are really important, especially if you are citing electronic information in your bibliography.

Editing Multiple ReferencesEditing Multiple ReferencesThere'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).

To customize the ‘Electronic Source Related Fields ‘ go to ‘Tools’, ‘Customize’.


Set the global edit option from the ‘Import Options’ section. In the ‘Show Option for Global Edit of Electronic Source Related Fields After Import’. Select ‘Yes’.


There is also an option to establish a Default Source Type for Imported References (Print or Electronic) which impacts what information prints in your bibliography.

Click ‘Save’ when you have finished making your changes.


Here’s how it works. In this example 2 references were imported directly from the database CSA.

After references are imported, the four fields are displayed and are ready for global editing.


RefWorks will fill in the information it can and you can fill in the rest.

In some cases you might not fill in all four fields (for example, the references may be from multiple databases). You can just fill in what is common to all the references imported.


To add a descriptor to all the references in the Darwin folder...

Select the ‘Field to Add Data’, ‘Specific Field’ and click on the drop-down.

Choose Descriptors.

Let’s go back to the Global Edit section and continue with adding a descriptor.


Type the information you want to add….

If you have selected Author, Descriptor or one of the Periodical Fields, the Term Assistant will appear.


Select one of the 3 options to use if the field you are modifying already has data in it.

• ‘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).


Click ‘Add’. A message asking if you want to add data to Descriptors in 3 reference(s) will pop up. Click OK.


A message in the Global Edit section will confirm that the data has been added successfully.

Editing Multiple ReferencesEditing Multiple ReferencesLet’s take a look to see if the Descriptor has been successfully added.

Go to ‘Folders’, ‘View’, ‘Darwin’.


Click on ‘View’ to see the full reference.


Here you will see that the Descriptor ‘Natural selection’ has been added to the reference.

Editing Multiple ReferencesEditing Multiple ReferencesLet’s briefly take a look at the other areas in the Global Edit feature, starting with the move area. 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 3 references in the Darwin folder and move them to the notes field.

Select ‘User 1’ from the drop down in the ‘Field to Move Data From’.


In the ‘Field to Move Data To’ drop down choose ‘Notes’


There are 3 options for handling the data, just like in the Add area. We are going to move the contents of the ‘User 1’ field to the ‘Notes’ field for each reference selected.

Choose ‘Append to Existing Data’ and then click the ‘Move’ button.

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Note: if you are moving data that has text attributes (bold, italic, underline, superscript and subscript) to a field that does not support text attributes, the text attributes will not appear in the field you moved the data to.


The delete area is where you can remove all the data from a field (or from 4 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 on the delete button and any data in the field is erased.


The replace area allows you to search for a word in a single field or in ALL fields and replace it with another word.

First select the records to modify.

In the ‘Field to Replace Data’ area in the Global Edit section you can choose any one of 3 options to search and replace.

• ‘Specific Field’ (choose one from the drop down) or• ‘Electronic Source Related Fields’ or• ‘All Fields’.


Then enter the word to find in the ‘Find what’ box followed by the word to replace it with in the ‘Replace with’ box.

It is important to note that the ‘Find What’ field will search for embedded terms UNLESS you select the ‘Whole Word’ option. This means that if you enter ’art’ in the ‘Find What’ field, it will search (and replace) ‘part’, heart’, ‘smart’, etc.


Besides the ‘Whole Word’ option, there is 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: haemoglobin’ because of the colon immediately after ‘blood’.

Click the ‘Replace’ button once you have made your choices.

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Editing Multiple References