RefWorks' Global Edit feature provides you with four options for editing groups of references:
Add: This option will add the same information to a particular field in a group of references in one action. This is particularly useful when importing data from online databases which require specific information in your output style. For example, you can easily add the name of the Data Service Provider to the Data Source field and the specific database to the Database field.
Move: This option allows you to take the entire contents of a field and move it to another field for each reference selected. The Reference Type and Source Type fields cannot be edited in the move area.
Delete: This option allows you to delete the information in a specific field of the selected references. The Reference Type and Source Type fields cannot be deleted.
Replace: Searches for a specific term in a single field (or all fields) and allows you to and replace the term with different information. The Reference Type and Source Type fields cannot be edited with the replace option.
To add information to a particular field to a group of references:
1. Select the references you want to edit - marking specific references or by selecting the Page or the All in List options.
2. Click on Global Edit.
3. Click on the Add tab.
4. Select the field you want to edit from the drop down list or choose the Electronic Source Related Fields option if you want to include information in the database, data source, links and retrieved date field all at once.
5. Type in the data you want to add to the field in the appropriate text box (or depending on the field you are editing, select an option from the drop-down) or fill out the Electronic Source Related Fields if you selected that option.
6. Select an option for handling the field if it already contains data. The options are:
- Append to Existing Data. This will add the information at the end of the current data in the field
- Overwrite Existing Data. Any data in the field you are editing will be replaced with the data you are adding.
- Leave Existing Data Alone. If the field contains data the global edit feature will skip that particular reference.
7. Click the Add button.
To move information from one field to another for a group of references:
1. Select the references you want to move the information from and to (Note: you will be moving the information within the selected references not to other references) - marking specific references or by selecting the Page or the All in List options.
2. Click on Global Edit.
3. Click on the Move tab.
4 Select the field you want to delete the data from in the drop-down list.
5. Select the field you want to move the data to in the drop-down list.
Note: If you moving information that has text attributes (bold, italic, underline, superscript or subscript) to a field that does not support text attributes, the text attributes will not appear in the new field.
6. Select an option for handling the field if it already contains data. The options are:
- Append to Existing Data. This will add the information at the end of the current data in the field
- Overwrite Existing Data. Any data in the field you are editing will be replaced with the data you are adding.
- Leave Existing Data Alone. If the field contains data the global edit feature will skip that particular reference.
6. Click the Move button.
To delete information in a particular field from a group of references:
1. Select the references you want to delete the information from - marking specific references or by selecting the Page or the All in List options.
2. Click on Global Edit.
3. Click on the Delete tab.
4. Select the field you want to delete the information from in drop- down list or choose the Electronic Source Related Fields option if you want to delete the information in the database, data source, links and retrieved date field all at once.
5. Click the Delete button.
To replace information in a particular field:
1. Select the references you want to edit - marking specific references or by selecting the Page or the All in List options.
2. Click on Global Edit.
3. Click on the Replace tab.
4. Select the field you want to edit from the drop-down list or choose the Electronic Source Related Fields option if you want to include information in the database, data source, links and retrieved date field all at once. You can also select All Fields if you want RefWorks to replace a specific term throughout your database.
5. In the Find What box, enter the term you want to search for. RefWorks will search for (and replace) embedded words if the Whole Words option is not selected. For example, if you enter "class" in the Find What box, RefWorks will replace words in the designated field(s) such as classify, classification, classified, etc.
6. In the Replace With box enter the term you want RefWorks to use.
7. In the Search Options area, you can determine if you want to Match Case or search for the Whole Word. Select any options you wish to use.
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 whole word “blood”, it will replace blood in the phrase “ the red blood cell” but not in “red blood: anemia” it will not replace blood because of the colon).
Also, If you also have a text attribute (bold, underline, italic, superscript, subscript) change in the middle of the word(s) you are trying to replace, RefWorks will not replace it. For example, if you want to replace the word blood in “red blood cell”, RefWorks will not replace it because of the different attributes surrounding the word blood. However, if the field is using the same attribute like “red blood cell”, then the word blood will be replaced.
8. Click the Replace button.