Step 7: Once the Execute Button has been clicked, the program will “break” the file.  The results of the process will be placed into the Results box and the Edit Records Button will become enabled if the conversion was successful.

As long as the record data in the specified input file is valid, the process described above will allow a user to take their MARC file and “break” it into the MarcEdit mnemonic format.  At this point, the user will have two files — their original source record provided by the vendor and the .mrk file created by MarcEdit when the MarcBreaker “broke” the file and generated a mnemonic file for editing.

How do I edit my MARC file

So, again, MarcEdit’s MarcEditor doesn’t edit MARC records directly…it edits the MarcEdit mnemonic file format.  In the paragraphs above, I described the process for taking a vendor supplied MARC file and “breaking” that file into the MarcEdit mnemonic format.  Using the MarcBreaker, MarcEdit will generate a .mrk file — a file the MarcEdit has designated to represent a mnemonic file.  It is at this point, that the user can edit their MARC data, using the mnemonic file, in either the MarcEditor or in another tool like Notepad, Notepad+, or UltaEdit.

Once a set of records has been successfully loaded into the MarcEditor, the user has the ability to utilize a wide variety of global editing tools and utilities.  For more information on the tools and utilities available within the MarcEditor, please see Book III.

I’ve made my changes, now what?

Once a user has made their changes to the mnemonic file, what’s next?  What happens when I save the file?  Can I load the .mrk file back into my local system?  These are great questions.

What happens when I save my file? One of the most common misunderstandings comes around what happens when you save a file within the MarcEditor.  There is a misunderstanding that saving the record will automatically convert the record data back to MARC.  This actually isn’t the case.  When a user saves a file within the MarcEditor, the program will save the mnemonic file and does not convert the data back into MARC.  The conversion process is normally a separate operation.  The only exception to this rule is when a user selects the Save As option and select the MARC Binary (.mrc) file type.  In that case, and only that case, will the MarcEditor automatically convert the data in the MarcEditor into MARC.

Can I load the .mrk file back into my local system? The answer to this question is no.  The .mrk file represents MarcEdit’s mnemonic format, and would be incompatible with your local MARC system.  The file in the MarcEditor must first be “compiled” back into MARC, before it can be loaded back into one’s local library catalog.