MARC Text Editor (F10)

This editor was added to MARC Report to address a few limitations.

The default MARC Report editor does not make it easy to edit:

1) huge fields (eg. any field that will not display completely on the screen), or

2) fields that contain a long string of data without any intervening blank space (such as in a string of holdings data that extends beyond the edge of the screen).

3) the simple copy and pasting of large chunks of text that include both MARC tags and field data (the MARC Report editor expects copy and paste to begin and end within the selected MARC field).

That being said, there are a few quirks about using a text editor with MARC data that must be understood, so please read through these brief instructions before using it for the first time.

HOW THE TEXT EDITOR WORKS

Each tag must be entered as three digits: '008' and not '8'

There must be one blank space (and not a TAB) after each tag: '008 '

For control fields (tags 000 to 009), the field data starts immediately after the blank space that follows the tag:

000 01637cam 2200397 a 4500 001 1577 003 PPLC 005 20041120123015.0 008 881108s1988 dcu 000 0aeng u

WARNING: Do not edit fixed fields using the text editor.

If you edit a fixed-length field like the leader or 008, and either enter an extra blank space, or delete a required blank space, the conversion program will reject the whole record, and you will have to start again.

For variable fields, the indicators start immediately after the blank space that follows the tag. There is no spacing between the indicators, and the first subfield delimiter follows the second indicator:

100 1 $aLevchenko, Stan. 245 00$aOn the wrong side :$bmy life in the KGB /$cStanislav Levchenko. 260 0 $aWashington :$bPergamon-Brassey's International Defense Publishers,$cc1988. 300 $axi, 244 p. ;$c24 cm. 610 10$aSoviet Union.$bKomitet gosudarstvennoæi bezopasnosti$xOfficials and employees$xBiography. 650 0$aSpies$zSoviet Union$xBiography.

INDICATORS

The example above covers all possible formats of the indicators:

Both indicators blank: 300
First indicator blank, second coded: 650
Second indicator blank, first coded: 100, 260
Both indicators coded: 245, 610

SUBFIELDS

To enter a subfield delimiter, use whatever the Record Display option named 'Text subfield delimiter' is set to (the ddefault is '$'). Do not use <Ctrl>-D in the text editor.

OTHER FORMATTING

There should not be any blank lines between the tags. A blank line is the signal to the text-to-MARC conversion program that it has reached the end of the record. The program will try to automatically deal with blank lines, but please try to avoid creating them in the first place.

SAVE

No changes are made to the actual MARC record in your file until you press the Save button. When you press SAVE, the program copies the data from the text window, converts it back to MARC, reloads the MARC record in the MARC Report editor, and re-runs the validation routines.

PROBLEMS?

If you mess up a record using the text editor, simply press the 'Undo' button when you return to the MARC Report editor. This will restore the record.

WRAP (Word-Wrap)

By default word-wrap is turned off in the text editor. If you are dealing with a very long field, we recommend that you first maximize the text editor window. If that still doesn't help, try pressing the WRAP button.

WARNING: Watch out for embedded carriage returns in the data of a field. MARC Report will indicate this problem with a message like '520: Cannot display (x0D)', where 'x0D' is the ASCII code for a carriage return. If you edit such a record in this editor without also fixing the problem, the field in which the carriage return occurs will be truncated at the position of the carriage return. This truncation may be difficult to notice if the record in question has a long 505 or 520 field. One way to check for this problem is to toggle the Wrap option on and then off again. When Wrap is off, the first three characters of each line should be a MARC tag. If this is not the case, then there is a problem.