KB User's Guide - Documents Tab - Batch Update
This document will show KB Admins how to efficiently update documents. The Batch Update Tool options include all fields in the document editor not related to document access.
Select the Exact Documents To Update
- To navigate to a Batch Update tool in the KB Admin Tools, click on the Documents Tab and click the link in the left navigation bar.

- When you have a batch update tool open, the following search screen and the filters are available. This will help you refine your document search so that you can select multiple documents and make changes to multiple documents at one time.

- If you already know the document ID number(s) you would like to update, enter them in the Comma delimited doc ids field. In the image above, the red circle brings attention to three docIDs from the KB User's Guide KB.
Note: You may refine your search to obtain a specific set of documents and their comma delimited Document IDs.
- Click on the Go button.
- After clicking on the Go button, the documents to which you have access will appear with check boxes next to them in the Select column in the far right (as referenced by red circle in the image below). You may select them individually or select them all at once by clicking on the Select All button.

At any time, you may click on the triangle on the left of the Document Title to see the Document Quickview (e.g. the entire content of the document) without leaving the screen.

- Under that table of documents, the batch change options will appear. Select the appropriate selections from the dropdown menus in this table.
Determine the Exact Fields to Update
Upon your selection, a text box with field-specific instructions will appear next to the field you have chosen to update. By not selecting any of the options from the dropdown menu, that field will remain unchanged.
Overview of the Fields Available

- Apply changes to - Draft and Active Versions, Draft version only
- Title - Prepend, Append or Remove from
- Search Priority- Top, High, Normal, Low, Exclude from Search
- Page Header - change Header to "None". This dropdown menu will display all (if any) the headers in your group
- Page Footer - change Footer to "None". This dropdown menu will display all (if any) footers in your group.
- Keywords - Prepend, Append, Remove from
- Summary - Prepend, Append, Remove from
- Body - Prepend, Append, Remove from
- Internal Note - Prepend, Append, Remove from
- SeeAlso - Reset SeeAlso
- Type - Document, Template, Glossary
- Topics - Reset Topics (list of topics will appear with unchecked check boxes next to each topic)
- Audiences - Reset Audiences
- Owner - This dropdown will display a list of your sub-site users
- FeedbackTo- Reset FeedbackTo
- MiscOptions - Reset MiscOptions
- JavaScript/CSS - Reset , Append
- Comment- This field is required and allows a maximum of 1200 characters.
Select the Fields you want to Change
Using the drop down menus, select the fields you wish to change for the selected documents.
Add a Comment
- We strongly encourage a detailed description here for record keeping purposes. This description will appear in the Show Comments and Events section of each document the Batch Update is applied. In the image below, the red arrow is pointing to a description detailing the nature of the Batch Update.

If you expand the Show Comments and Events section of one of the documents included in the Batch Update, you will see the description along with the name of the person who made the update, plus the time and date stamp.

Check Your Work and Submit
Once you have made your selection(s), we strongly encourage you to check the:
- document selection(s)
- document version selection
- field selection(s), especially if you chose the correct selection from the dropdown menus
- description of the Batch Update in the Comment field is detailed
Once you are certain all your selections are accurate, click on the Submit button.
Batch Update Greater than 100 Documents
On a final note, documents will be updated 100 at a time.
For example, if you choose to update 398 documents at once, 100 documents will be updated at one time, then the next set of 100, then the next set of 100 and then the remaining documents until all your updates are made.
Only 100 documents are updated at a time to manage the load on our servers.
Please contact us at kb-team@lists.wisc.edu if you have any questions or need clarification on the Batch Update Tool.
See Also: