I worked out how to share term list items in Recorder 2002 for a customer last year. I presume they would also work for location term list items in Recorder 6. Unfortunately there are no facilities in Recorder for exporting them (except as part of an export of observations) but it is not difficult to export them manually and having done that they can then be imported into any other copy of Recorder 2002 (/Recorder 6 ?).

When using this technique please backup your databases beforehand and test it carefully to guard against unforeseen problems.

The instructions for manually exporting measurement qualifiers and units for use in other copies of Recorder 2002 are as follows:

1. In the copy of Recorder 2002 that you want to be the custodian of these items, create the required measurement qualifiers and units in the term list for Measurement Type using Tools - Term Lists.
2. Export the details of the person or people who entered the measurement qualifiers and units using the standard export mechanism (using a rucksack for multiple people); also the details of anyone who subsequently changed them. Untick 'Include Observations' unless required.
3. Create a new empty Access database.
4. Copy and paste the MEASUREMENT_QUALIFIER table from the Recorder 2002 database (nbndata.mdb) into the new database using the 'Structure Only' option and giving the table the same name as in nbndata.mdb.
5. Copy and paste the required measurement qualifiers from the MEASUREMENT_QUALIFIER table in nbndata.mdb to the same table in the new database. These items can be located quite easily as they will have keys starting with the site id for your copy of Recorder 2002, i.e. the Copy identifier on the Recorder 2002 welcome screen which can be displayed at any time using Help - Summary Info.
6. Copy and paste the MEASUREMENT_UNIT table from the Recorder 2002 database (nbndata.mdb) into the new database using the 'Structure Only' option and giving the table the same name as in nbndata.mdb.
7. Copy and paste the required measurement units from the MEASUREMENT_UNIT table in nbndata.mdb to the same table in the new database.
8. Compact and repair the new database using Tools - Database Utilities - Compact and Repair Database. This is optional, but a good safety measure.
9. If you are not using Access 97, open the new database and convert it to Access 97 format using Tools - Database Utilities - Convert Database - To Prior Access Database Version.
10. Zip the new database.
11. Import the details of the person or people who entered the measurement qualifiers and units into the copies of Recorder 2002 in which you want to use the required measurement qualifiers and units.
12. Import the zipped database containing the measurement items into the copies of Recorder 2002 in which you want to use the required measurement qualifiers and units.

If you are asked for a password 'password' will usually allow you to proceed.

These are the instructions for use with Access 2000, they may differ in later versions of Access.

This works without doing steps 2 and 11 but if you don't do them the copies of Recorder 2002 to which you import the measurement items may contain reference to a person or people who are not in the system(s). This may cause problems, e.g. when exporting data that uses the imported measurement items or when upgrading to Recorder 6. 

If you were to add a new measurement type you would need to include the entries from the MEASUREMENT_TYPE and MEASUREMENT_TYPE_CONTEXT tables in the new database.

If you have any problems with this please let me know. I hope it will enable you to share term list items. Sorry I haven't time to retest it for Recorder 6.

Sally Rankin
Recorder 2002 Authorised Reseller
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687