Edit Data
User Guide — Correcting and Updating Data, Safely
Module: Data Update | Last updated: August 2026
Contents
- Overview
- Choosing a Table
- Finding Your Way Around the Grid
- Finding the Rows You Need
- Editing Values
- Editing Alongside Other People
- Saving Your Work: Commit and Discard
- Bulk Update
- Exporting
- Quick Reference
1. Overview
Edit Data is the day-to-day workspace where data stewards actually correct and update data — the counterpart to the setup done in Data Update Preparation. You open a table, find the rows you need, change values right in the grid, and save. Every change is recorded in the audit trail, and the page is built so several people can work at once without overwriting each other.
One thing to keep in mind throughout: Edit Data is for changing existing values only. You can't add new rows or delete rows here — it's about correcting and maintaining the data that's already there.
What you can do here
- Open any table you have access to and edit its values inline.
- Search and filter to pin down exactly the rows you want, even in very large tables.
- Change values by typing or by picking from a list, with edits highlighted until you save.
- Save (Commit) your changes to the audit trail, or Discard them.
- Bulk Update many rows at once.
- Export what you're looking at to Excel.
WHERE TO FIND IT — This page lives under Data Update → Edit Data.
2. Choosing a Table
When you open Edit Data with no table chosen, the main area shows a card for each table you can access. You can also switch tables at any time using the Switch Table panel on the right (it starts collapsed so the grid gets the full width — click its strip to open it).
Each table shows its source, its row count, and an access label telling you what you can do with it:
| Access | What it means |
|---|---|
| Edit | You can change values in this table. |
| Read-only | You can view and export the table, but not change it. |
| Locked / In use | The table is currently in use — it shows who has it. |
Pick a table to load its data into the grid. (Which tables appear here, and which columns you see, are decided on the Data Update Preparation page.)
NOTHING TO EDIT? — If no tables appear, none have been made editable yet. An administrator flags a table as editable during Data Update Preparation.
3. Finding Your Way Around the Grid
Once a table is open you'll see:
- A title and a running "unsaved changes" counter that tells you how many edits you've made but not yet saved.
- A toolbar with search, and the action buttons — Bulk Update, Export, Discard, and Commit.
- The data grid itself, showing the columns that were chosen for display during setup.
- A pager along the bottom for moving through the rows.
In the grid, not every column behaves the same way:
- Editable columns can be changed (see the next sections). A small legend marks changed cells, which turn yellow until you save.
- Reference columns — the key columns that identify each row, and system columns like the "last updated" timestamp — are shown for context but can't be edited.
4. Finding the Rows You Need
Tables can hold millions of rows, so rather than scrolling endlessly, Edit Data is built around search. There are two ways to narrow the list, and you can combine them:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Keyword | Finds rows where a value starts with what you type, across the table. |
| Column filter | Restricts the match to one specific column (choose the column, then type a value that it starts with). Leave it on Any column to search everywhere. |
Type your terms and click Search (or press Enter) to apply them — the search runs then, not on every keystroke, which keeps it fast on huge tables. Clear removes the filters.
Results are shown a page at a time. Use the pager at the bottom to move between pages (First / Prev / Next / Last) and to change how many rows appear per page (50, 100, or 200).
LARGE TABLES — If a table has more than a few thousand rows, the page nudges you to search or filter rather than page through everything. Narrowing to the rows you actually need is both faster and less error-prone than scrolling.
5. Editing Values
To change a value, click the cell and edit it. How you edit depends on how the column was set up:
- Free-text columns — type the new value directly.
- Pick-list columns — choose from a dropdown of approved values (you can type to filter the list). This keeps the data consistent with your reference data.
Changed cells turn yellow and the unsaved changes counter goes up, so you always know what you've touched but not yet saved. Your edits stay put as you move between pages — nothing is saved until you Commit.
NO ADDING OR DELETING — Edit Data changes existing values only. There's no way to insert a new row or delete an existing one here; that's by design.
6. Editing Alongside Other People
Several people can work in the same table at once, so Edit Data protects everyone's changes with row-level locking. It's automatic — you don't manage it — but it helps to know how it looks:
- When you start editing a row, that row is quietly locked for you so no one else can change it while you're working.
- A row someone else is editing appears greyed out and can't be edited. A small lock marker shows the editor's initials, and hovering over it shows their full name.
- If you try to edit a row someone else holds, your change is undone and a message tells you who's editing it. Wait for them to finish, or work on other rows.
- Your locks release themselves when you save, discard, switch tables, close the page, or simply step away for a few minutes — so rows don't stay stuck because someone forgot to close a screen.
If a lock ever seems stuck, an administrator can clear it from the Lock Manager.
7. Saving Your Work: Commit and Discard
Your edits are held locally until you decide what to do with them.
- Commit saves every pending change and records it in the audit trail. When it's done, the grid refreshes to show the saved values, along with who updated them and when.
- Discard throws away all your unsaved edits and returns the grid to the stored values.
Because other people may be editing the same table, Commit is careful never to overwrite someone else's work:
CONFLICTS ARE SKIPPED, NEVER OVERWRITTEN — If a row you edited was changed and saved by someone else after you loaded it, Commit skips that row rather than clobbering their change, and tells you how many were skipped so you can review and redo them. Everything else in your batch still saves.
AUDIT TABLE REQUIRED — Commit is only available once the table's audit mirror has been created. If it hasn't, the page shows a notice and Commit stays disabled — an administrator creates the audit table on the Data Update Preparation page. This guarantees no edit is ever made without a history record.
8. Bulk Update
When the same change applies to many rows, Bulk Update saves you editing them one by one.
Steps
- Select the rows you want using the checkboxes in the grid (searching first to narrow the list helps).
- Click Bulk Update.
- In the dialog, fill in only the columns you want to change. Any field you leave blank keeps its existing value. Pick-list columns offer a dropdown; free-text columns take typed values.
- Choose the scope (below), then apply.
Bulk Update can work at two scopes:
| Scope | What it does |
|---|---|
| Selected rows on this page | Applies your values to the rows you ticked. These are staged like any other edit — you still Commit to save them. |
| All rows matching your search | Applies to every row that matches your current search, not just the ones on screen. This runs on the server and saves immediately, showing a progress indicator while it works. |
The "all matching" option appears only when your search matches more rows than you've selected, and it's a fast way to update a whole filtered set in one go. As with a normal Commit, any rows changed by someone else in the meantime are skipped and reported.
ONLY FILLED FIELDS APPLY — Bulk Update never blanks a column by accident. Fields you leave empty in the dialog are left exactly as they were; only the fields you fill in are changed. Every change is logged to the audit trail.
9. Exporting
Export downloads the rows currently in the grid to an Excel file. It's available whether or not you have edit access, so read-only users can still pull data out for review or offline work. Use search and filters first to export just the slice you care about.
10. Quick Reference
A fast lookup for the most common actions.
| I want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Open a table to edit | Pick it from the cards, or from the Switch Table panel |
| Change tables | Open the Switch Table panel on the right |
| Find specific rows | Type a Keyword or set a column filter, then click Search |
| See more rows at once | Change Rows per page at the bottom (50 / 100 / 200) |
| Change one value | Click the cell and type, or pick from the dropdown |
| Change many rows the same way | Select rows → Bulk Update → fill only the fields to change |
| Update every row matching my search | Bulk Update → tick Apply to all matching (saves immediately) |
| Save my changes | Commit (records them in the audit trail) |
| Throw away my changes | Discard |
| Get the data into Excel | Export |
| Understand a greyed-out row | It's being edited by someone else — hover to see who |
| Fix "Commit is disabled" | The table's audit table isn't created yet — an admin creates it in Data Update Preparation |
Source: OnCoor Data Update product documentation, written for end users. For the latest screens and options, always refer to the in-app interface.