- folder 1 
  - file 1 
  - file 2 
  - subfolder 1 
    - file 1 
    - file 2 
  - subfolder 2 
    - file 1 
    - file 2 
    - subsubfolder 3 
      - file 1

The user would set the source directory at the level within the folder tree where file processing should begin.  If the user wanted to process all files (regardless of subfolder), the source directory would be set to folder 1.  If the user only wanted to process the files in subfolder 2, the source directory would be set to subfolder 2 and the option to process subfolders would be left unchecked.

Include Subfolders: This option let’s MarcEdit know if it should process just the records in the specified source directory, or if it should recursively process subfolders and apply the same processing instructions to files found within the subfolders under the source directory.

File Types:  This is a comma delimited list of file extensions that should be evaluated by the tool.  If, for example, the process was evaluating MARCXML data — the file type would be .xml.

Function:  All data transformation functions registered within MarcEdit can be accessed from this list.  Users just need to locate the process that they wish to run, and select it.

Step-by-Step

So, that was a lot of text.  In a nutshell, what are the steps to making this work?

1. Select your Source Directory (this is the folder with the data to be processed)
2. Decide if you need to process subfolders as part of this process.  If you do, check this option.
3. Select your file types to be processed by entering their file extension.
4. Select the data transformation function from the list of functions.
5. Click Next
6. Wait for the results

And that’s it.  The Batch Processing tool will provide a running status message so users can monitor the process and will report any files that were unable to be handled by the selected transformation.