Bulk Update is similar to Batch Update - the important difference is that instead of changing all the assets individually, you are able to search for a group of assets and then apply the same metadata to all of the assets in the batch simultaneously.

To start a Bulk Update, first click on the Bulk Update tab within the main ‘Update Assets' section.

Then click on the link ‘Start a new Bulk Update'.

You can then create a batch using search exactly as Batch Update.

Once you've entered your search criteria and clicked the ‘search' button, the system will let you know how many assets were collected in your ‘batch':

Having created a batch of assets, you now have a few options on which action to take:

• Select assets in batch for update. This will take you to a screen showing all the assets in your current batch. Simply click on any of the assets to select them for update. When selecting the assets in the batch you can hover over any image thumbnails to see a larger version and click the thumbnail to popup the asset's details in a new window.
• Run an update on the selected items in this batch. Any upcoming metadata changes will be applied to all assets in your search results. See Running a Bulk Update below.
  
• Run a Find and Replace on the selected items in this batch. Any upcoming 'find and replace' changes on text metadata will be applied to all assets in your search results. See Running a Bulk Find and Replace below.
• Delete the selected items in this batch. This option presents you with a warning asking you to confirm that you want to permanently delete the assets in the current batch from the system. Warning: this is a permanent deletion. You will not be able to retrieve the assets afterward.
• Finish with this batch. This option cancels the current Bulk Update, releasing the assets for other users to update them.

Running a Bulk Update

Once you have selected your assets, you can choose to Run an Update:

This page lists all of the possible metadata fields that can be changed.

For each attribute that you want to be updated in bulk, choose to either replace or append the current value, then fill in the new value in the right-hand column. If you leave the left hand drop down at its default '-Skip-' value, then that attribute will not be updated.

You can select a new thumbnail to assign to the assets. However, this will only apply to assets that are non-image assets for example Word documents. If there are image assets in the batch then the thumbnail will not be applied to these (but any other attribute changes will be applied).

If Advanced Viewing is enabled then you can optionally choose to mark all the assets in the bulk as being available for advanced viewing by groups of users that have also been marked as advanced viewing. Advanced viewing enables groups of users to see unnapproved assets (only if the assets would be visible to the user if approved). 

If batch releases are enabled assets can be added / moved to a batch release using bulk update. The user is presented with the option of replacing an asset's batch release. If the user selects to do this the for each asset in the bulk update one of two things happens...

• If the asset is already in a batch release then it is moved to the selected one and an asynchronous dependency check is kicked off for the asset
• If the asset isn't in a batch release then it is added to the selected one and the checks are run. 

Click ‘Start Update' and you will be taken to a progress screen, which will then let you know when the update is complete.

Running a Bulk Find and Replace

 Once you have selected your assets, you can choose to Run a Find and Replace: