Change many events at once

As the dispute develops, groups of events need the same change. A new issue emerges and twenty events belong to it. A witness turns out to have been copied on every email in a run of correspondence. Counsel wants the events numbered so the pleading can refer to them, or the chronology needs one font before it goes out. Bulk edit makes the change to every selected event in one step.

Two things decide how you go about it. Which events, exactly? A filter usually finds them faster than your eye. And should the change add to what the events have, or replace it? Tags, people and documents are added; titles, colours and fonts are replaced.

Select the events

Select them in the table or on the timeline, whichever is open.

1. In the table. Switch the timeline to Table, tick the events, and click Bulk edit in the bar at the bottom of the page. To change every event in an issue, set the filter first in Filters, then tick the box at the top of the table to select all the events that are showing.

   

2. On the timeline. In Linear or Relative, hold Shift and drag a box around the events. Right-click inside the selection and choose Bulk edit. You need at least two events selected.

   

Make the change

Bulk edit opens with nothing filled in. A field you leave alone changes nothing, so fill in only what should change.

1. Number the titles. Under Prefix, choose 1., a. or i. to put a number, letter or roman numeral in front of each title, in date order: the earliest selected event becomes "1. …", the next "2. …". Suffix puts the number at the end of the title instead.

2. Replace the titles. Text in Title replaces the title of every selected event with that text. Leave it empty to keep each event's own title, which is what you want almost every time.

3. Add people, documents and tags. Pick from People, Documents and Tags. They are added to every selected event, and nothing the events already have is removed. To create a person or tag that does not exist yet, type the name and choose the Add option that appears for it.

4. Set the fonts. Under Title font and Description font, choose a Font family and a Font size. A field that shows Keep existing leaves the events as they are, so you can change the size and keep each event's font, or the other way round.

5. Set the colours. Pick a Colour, Text colour or Border colour to give the events the same look, for example one colour for every event in an issue. A colour you do not touch stays as each event has it.

6. Click Save, then look over the changed events on the timeline or in the table.

Which change for which job

Tips from practice

• Filter first, then select. Filtering on a tag, a person or a period in the table and ticking the box at the top selects exactly the events that belong, including the ones you would have missed by eye.
• Number once, at the end. The numbering is written into the titles. Running it again on the same events puts a second number in front of the first, and adding an event later does not renumber the others. Number the events when the chronology is settled.
• Removing is done in the table. Bulk edit only adds tags, people and documents. To take a tag or a person off several events, tick them in the table and remove it in the cell of one ticked row, and it comes off all of them; see check and correct the chronology in a table.

To give the events for an issue a lasting place in the chronology, see tag events by issue. Before the chronology goes out, polish the chronology before it goes out.