A merged list is a combination of two or more lists. Sometimes it may be useful to have a "master" list that includes all animals that are on at least one of the other lists. For example, you may want to get a list of "Animals to Preg Check" combined with "Cows Due to Calf in Next 30 Days" so that you have one list for the vet when she comes to check your herd.
The merged list merges both columns and animals. For example, if both lists have the column Barn Name, only one Barn Name column will be in the merged list. If a particular animal is on more than one list, she will appear only once in the merged list. An extra column, called Notes, will be shown to indicate which list or lists she was from.
To create a merged list, select two or more check lists from the Herd Explorer and then select Object->Merge Lists from the main menu bar, or click on the Merge Lists button on the toolbar. If the check lists that you want to merge are not in the same group, you can select the top-level Check Lists category, and then select "Show Children Group Members" from the right-click context menu to show all lists.
When the Merged List View first appears, it will normally be blank. To generate the list, click on the Refresh button. Depending on your herd size and the lists' designs, it will take a few moments for the merged list to be created.
After the list is generated, the matching animals will be shown in the table. The table will have one or more columns. By default, the list will be sorted on the first column. You can sort on any of the columns by clicking on the column name. The arrow next to the column name shows which direction the list is sorted by (ascending or descending). To change the direction, simply click on the column heading again.
Below the list you will see an area where the names of the original lists are shown. This serves as a "key" to the Notes column in the merged list. The Notes column tells you which list or lists the animal was selected from.
The toolbar along the bottom of the List View window has a button for changing which lists are to be merged. When you click on this button, the Merged List Setup dialog will be shown. See that help topic for more information about setting up your merged list.
You can print the list that was generated by clicking on the Print button in the toolbar. This will cause a "Print Preview" window to be shown, giving you an idea of what the printed output will look like. Note that there may be an extra blank column in which you can write notes on the printed output. You can send this to the printer by clicking on Send To Printer. You can also save the list as an HTML document by pressing Save as HTML. HTML documents can be published on the Web or imported into other applications, such as Microsoft Word.
If something changes in DairyLive that may cause the list to become outdated, a message "Press Refresh to update the merged list" will appear on the top of the Merged List View window. Press the Refresh button to re-generate the list with the current data.
You can perform operations on an animal or animals directly from the list of animals in the List View. To open an animal's Animal Details window, double-click on the animal.
Other operations that you can perform are:
- Quick Add Event (see Add Event dialog)
- Quick Add Reminder (see Add Reminder dialog)
- Events (see Event View)
- Reminders (see Reminder View)
- Print Details for Selected Animals
- Move Selected Animals (see Group dialog)
To get to one of these operations, select it from the Animal menu in the main menu, or, right-click on the selected animal or animals and select the operation from the pop-up context menu.
In some cases, you can select more than one animal and then perform an operation on all of them. For example, you can select several animals and then select Object->Animal->Quick Add Event to add an event for all of them at the same time. To select multiple animals, click on the first animal. Then, holding the control key down on your keyboard, click on the other animals that you want in the group. To select a range of animals, click on the first animal. Then, holding the shift key down on your keyboard, click on the last animal. All animals between the first and last will also be selected.
If you select Print Details for Selected Animals from the Animal menu, an animal details report will be created containing all of the animals that you have selected. The report will appear in a Print Preview window. To send this report to your printer, press the Send to Printer button on the bottom of this window.
The animal details report will contain most of the information that you see in the Animal Details View. By default, it will also contain each animal's picture (if there is one). Since this can take a lot of space in your report, you can turn this off by selecting View->Options to bring up the Options dialog and removing the appropriate check mark.
If you select Move Selected Animals from the Animal menu, a dialog will prompt you for the name of the group you want to move the animals to. This is the easiest way to move a large group of animals into the same group based on how animals match the list design.
To move the animals, refresh the list and select which animals you want to move. To select multiple animals, hold the Control key down on your keyboard as you select them with the left mouse button. Then select Animal->Move Selected Animals. A dialog will prompt you for the name of the group to move the animals to.