Option 3: Copying multiple activities with automatic naming and addressing
- Access Mass Activity Copy (AC01.1).
- Define a run group that represents the activities to copy. Specify this information:
- Run Group
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Specify a unique Run Group name. You can select this run group later on Activity Copy (AC110) to copy the activities you define here.
- To Activity Group
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Select an activity group for the new activities in the To Activity Group field. If the activity group does not exist, then define it using Activity Group (AC00.1).
- To define rules for the application to use to automatically create names for the new activities, select Define in the Automatic Activity field to access Automatic Activity (AC01.4). Use this sub-form to define the rules for naming the new activities. Specify this information:
Note: Define a naming rule for activities at each level. Naming rules applied to higher level activities do not automatically apply to lower activities. For example, to add the same suffix to summary and posting level activities, identify the same rule for each level.
- Rule
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Specify a unique name and provide a description to store your activity naming rules.
- Action
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Select one of these actions to identify the rule to work:
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Prefix creates the new activity name by adding characters or numbers to the beginning of the From Activity name.
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Suffix creates the new activity name by adding characters or numbers to the end of the From Activity name.
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Level uses the From Activity level address for the new activity name.
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Replace creates the new activity name by substituting characters you specify at a given position in the From Activity name.
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Insert creates the new activity name by inserting characters you specify at a given position in the From Activity name.
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- Beg
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If you use the Replace or Insert action, specify the location in the 15-character activity name to identify where you want the characters replaced or inserted. For example, to create the new activity name by replacing the second and third characters of the From Activity name, specify 2.
- Phrase
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If you use the Prefix action, then specify the characters you want to add to the beginning of the From Activity name to create the new activity name.
If you use the Suffix action, specify the characters you want to add to the end of the From Activity name to create the new activity name.
If you use the Replace action, then specify the characters you want to replace in the From Activity name starting at the position you identified in the Beg field to create the new activity name.
If you use the Insert action, then specify the characters you want to insert in the From Activity name, starting at the position identified in the Beg field, to create the new activity name.
- To define rules for the application to use to automatically create level addresses for the new activities, select Define in the Automatic Level field to access Automatic Level (AC01.5). Use this sub-form to define rules. Specify this information:
- Rule
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Specify a unique name and provide a description to store your activity addressing rules.
- Size
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Leave this field blank. The application automatically populates the level sizes using the To Activity Group's information.
- Start Value
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If you specify where level addressing should start, then specify a value in this field. Level addresses can start at this number and increment by the value you specify in the Increment by field. If you leave this field blank, then the start value is one.
- Increment by
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Specify the number to increment the new level address from the old level address. For example, if the old level 1 address was 10, and you select 5 as the increment value, then the level address for the first new level 1 summary activity is 15.
- Click Add Parameters to automatically populate the From Activity fields. Use Additional Parameters (AC01.2) to select the activity group, range of levels in an activity group, range of activities, or list of activities to use when populating the From Activity fields.
Alternatively, manually select activities in the From Activity fields.
- Select the Automatic Name special action to apply your Automatic Activity naming rules to automatically populate new activity names in the To Activity fields.
Note: You can change the Auto Name and Auto Level rules and repeat steps six and seven to repopulate fields until the names and addresses show the exact values.
Alternatively, manually specify activities in the To Activity fields.
- Select the Auto Level special action to apply your Automatic Level addressing rules to automatically populate new activity level addresses in the To Level Address fields.
Alternatively, manually specify level addresses in the To Level Address fields.
- Optionally, you can freeze specific activities from further changes when you invoke Automatic Activity and Automatic Level. This lets you keep applying auto naming and auto level numbering rules to some activities but not others.
If you want to: Then: Freeze select activities Select Freeze as the line action for each activity to freeze and click Change. Freeze all activities in the run group Click Freeze. Note: You can also unfreeze activities using the same methods. Select Unfreeze as the line or special action. - To filter what you see on the form, click Filter to access Inquire Filter (AC01.3). You can indicate the specific From Activities or To Activities to display. Inquire again to display the filtered data on AC01.1.
- When all of your changes are complete, select the Release special action to release the new activities and associated level addresses. The application performs edits when you release to ensure that all the new activity names are unique and then assigns the level addresses.
Note: If you do not use auto level addressing, level addresses are assigned sequentially. If you un-release, the variable levels are cleared.
- To add a short or long description and a date range, access More (AC01.6) by clicking the (*) asterisks.
- Run Activity Copy (AC110) for the Run Group you defined to create the new activities.