JMichaelTX,
Attached a zip of two dumps - txt and csv - from a much cut down BookPedia library with all (Smart) Collections removed - except the one that returns which records do have a colon in them somewhere.
BookPedia exports.zip (5.0 KB)
The ideal KM macro would be one which looks at a single record. That's because not all records with a colon in their title field need splitting… I want to retain control.
And one which allows me to start iterating through the 8,000 records at any point in the database - partly because I've already fixed a couple of hundred (such) records manually; and partly because I don't anticipate being able to fix all those records which need fixing at one go/in one sitting.
The interrelatedness of (Smart) collections and possible resultant losses of data integrity in BookPedia is another reason why I've been reluctant to pursue the approach whereby a script just works its way through either an export or the entire database.
IOW, exporting-fixing-importing would work very well for a single table; but re-importing would lose all sorts of data-relationships in BookPedia.
I really do need to go record by record - thereby updating all BookPedia's (Smart) Collections etc; and giving me the final say over which record is amended, and which not - really is the best way for me, I think.
I doubt that would be possible because of all the live-updated (Smart) Collections etc. I don't believe they're exported with the dumps we've been talking about.
I have almost 100 of these (Smart) Collections with carefully-defined criteria. It would take longer for me to record and recreate them all than to clean up on colon manually. But thanks for advising that there is so much merit to that approach; I can see your point!
I really appreciate all your help. I'm learning a lot. Bottom line: I can live with having to edit records with more than one colon. But I do believe it's vital to go record-by-record within BookPedia.
Thanks for your other guidance 