Data Changes en Masse

btn_watchdemo20070807

In the previous section I showed how to modify data one cell at a time. Now I’ll show how systematic changes can be made to many cells at once. My goal will be to add $1.25 to the price of every freight car in the catalog, and $2.50 to the price of every passenger car. I start by clicking in the Category field and choosing the Find/Select command from the Search menu. Then I type in Freight Car.

001_FindSelectDialog

When I press the Select button Panorama scans the local database and selects only Freight Car records. All other records become temporarily invisible.

002_JustFreightCars

To actually change the prices I click anywhere in the Price column, then choose Formula Fill from the Math menu. This allows me to change the selected cells based on a formula.

003a_FormulaFill

When I press the OK button all 44 visible prices are increased by $1.25.

004_FreightCarPriceBump

I’ll repeat the same process to add $2.50 to every passenger car. I start with the Find/Select command…

005_SelectPassengerCars

And then use the Formula Fill command to adjust the prices.

006_PassengerCarPriceBump

I choose Select All from the Search menu to make all of the data visible again. I can see all of the changed data in pink, and make further adjustments if necessary.

007_PriceBumpsReadyToUpload

The final step is to choose the Update All Changes to Rails command from the Rails menu. As you can see, a total of 58 cells were modified and uploaded.

008_PriceBumpsUploaded

Continue the Tour —> Adding New Records