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Bulk Edit: Changing Many Map Locations at Once

Updated: Jill Bobrick Igl Edited:

The Location Manager's Bulk Edit feature lets you make the same change across multiple locations in a single save. It's the headline capability of the new Location Manager and replaces the old, more limited Bulk Edit page.

This article assumes you're already familiar with the Location Manager itself. If you're not, start with The Location Manager: Your Map's Editing Workspace.

How Bulk Edit works

Bulk Edit allows you to apply the same change to multiple locations at once.

After selecting locations, choose a field to edit and configure the change you want to make. Saving creates revisions for the selected locations, just like editing a single location. Those revisions can be previewed and published through the standard CMS publishing workflow.

Bulk Edit changes one field at a time. If you need to update multiple fields, simply repeat the process for each field.

Selecting locations

  1. Filter and search the table down to what you want to work on (for example, Category: Dining and Status: Published).
  2. Tick the checkbox at the start of each row, or use the header checkbox to select every location on the current page. A selection toolbar appears at the top of the table showing how many locations you have selected.

The selection toolbar has up to four actions:

  • Clear Selection: reset and start over
  • Edit: open the Bulk Edit modal
  • Delete: bulk-delete the selection (see Bulk delete below)
  • Publish: publish revisions for the selection (appears when at least one selected location has unpublished revisions)

Selection persists across pagination. If you select 30 locations on page 1 and then page through to filter or browse, your selection stays. Clear Selection resets it explicitly.

The Bulk Edit modal

Click Edit in the selection toolbar to open the Bulk Edit modal. The modal title tells you how many locations are about to change.

 

The Field to Edit dropdown

Bulk Edit changes one field at a time across your whole selection. Pick the field from the Field to Edit dropdown at the top of the modal:

  • Category
  • Name
  • Description
  • Visible
  • Private
  • Keywords
  • Labels
  • Floor Level
  • List Position (Weight)
  • Reference ID
  • Icon Size
  • Min Zoom
  • Max Zoom
  • Location Open
  • Location Pop-Up
  • Style

The form below the dropdown changes based on the field you pick. Each field type has its own behavior, described in Editing by field family below.

For fields where some locations might be skipped (like Style, which can't apply to polymarkers), the modal shows a live "will apply to / will be skipped" summary as you configure your change. You always know what's about to happen before you save.

 

Editing by field family

Names

The Name editor offers four actions, each suited to a different situation:

  • Replace all: overwrite every selected location's name with the same value. Use sparingly; this overwrites existing names.
  • Find and replace: replace text within names. An optional Case sensitive toggle is available. The editor shows a live "found in X of Y locations" counter as you type, so you can see your search is matching what you expect.
  • Add prefix: prepend text to every selected location's name (for example, "Old: " or "(Closed) ").
  • Add suffix: append text to every selected location's name.

Example: renaming all residence halls. Filter by Category: Residence Halls, select all, then Bulk Edit → Name → Find and replace → find "Hall", replace with "Residence Hall". 

Categories

Pick one or more categories from the picker, then choose an action:

  • Append: add the chosen categories to the selected locations (existing categories are preserved)
  • Replace: set the selected locations' categories to exactly what you picked
  • Remove: remove the chosen categories from the selected locations

Zero-category guardrail: if a Remove action would leave any selected location with no categories at all, Bulk Edit blocks the save and tells you which locations are affected (showing names where possible). Every location on your map must belong to at least one category.

Example: adding a new "Accessible Entrance" category to 40 building entrances without disturbing their existing categories. Filter for entrances, select all, then Bulk Edit → Category → Append → choose "Accessible Entrance" → Save.

Keywords and Labels

Keywords and Labels work the same way. Both are comma-separated token lists:

  • Append: add tokens to existing values (skips duplicates automatically)
  • Replace: overwrite all existing tokens with what you supply
  • Remove: remove the listed tokens from each selected location

The editor surfaces existing tokens from your current selection as suggestions, so you don't accidentally introduce spelling variations of an existing token.

Floor Levels

Available on maps that have floor levels configured. Same Append / Replace / Remove model as Categories. Useful when a building's floor scheme changes (for example, adding a sub-basement to every location that had Basement).

Visible, Private, and other value fields

These are toggle and value fields:

  • Visible: Yes / No
  • Private: Yes / No
  • Reference ID: an external identifier string

Choose the new value (or No change) and save.

Example: hiding every athletics venue between seasons. Filter by Category: Athletics → select all → Bulk Edit → Visible → No → Save and publish. Reverse at the start of the season.

Pop-Ups and Location Open behavior

  • Location Pop-Up: the text shown in a location's pop-up 
  • Location Open: what happens when a visitor opens a location: the default Location Display, an External URL (with optional "open in new tab"), or a Share URL

For External URL and Share URL, the modal reveals additional inputs as needed.

Numeric fields

  • Min Zoom and Max Zoom: control at which zoom levels a location is visible (0 to 22)
  • Icon Size: marker icon size in pixels (10 to 80)
  • List Position (Weight): numeric sort order in lists

Min Zoom must be less than or equal to Max Zoom. The modal validates this for you and won't let you save an invalid combination.

Style

The Style editor handles the visual properties of your locations. Because different shape types support different styling, the modal shows a selection breakdown so you can see what you're working with, for example: "Selection: 12 markers, 47 polygons, 3 polymarkers."

Style is split into two groups:

  • Marker Display: applies only to marker locations. Includes:
    • Show Marker Icon (on / off)
    • Show Text Label (on / off)
    • A safety check prevents you from turning both off: at least one must be on, or the marker would be invisible.
  • Shape Style: applies to polygons, circles, rectangles, and polylines. Includes:
    • Fill color and fill opacity (plus hover variants)
    • Stroke color, stroke opacity, stroke weight, and stroke type (solid or dashed)
    • Hover variants for fill and stroke

The impact report at the bottom of the modal updates live to show exactly what will change:

  • "Will apply to: 47 shapes."
  • "Will be skipped: 3 polymarkers (not styleable), 12 markers (Shape Style only applies to shapes)."

This means you can mix shape types in your selection without worrying about unexpected side effects. Bulk Edit only touches what your settings apply to.

Polymarkers and other non-styleable types are always skipped. This is by design; their visual representation comes from elsewhere.

 

Common workflows ("recipes")

These are the most-asked-about scenarios, broken down step by step. Each one assumes you start on the Location Manager page with a fresh selection.

Closing a building or wing for renovation

  1. Filter by Keywords or Floor Level to narrow to the affected locations.
  2. Verify the table is showing the right locations.
  3. Select all with the header checkbox.
  4. Edit → Visible → No → Save.
  5. Preview to confirm the affected locations are no longer visible on the public map.
  6. Publish the selection.

Reverse the same steps when the building reopens.

Standardizing styling across all polygons

  1. Filter Shape to Polygon (and any others you want, like Circle and Rectangle).
  2. Select all.
  3. Edit → Style.
  4. Set your brand fill color and opacity, stroke color, stroke weight, and stroke type.
  5. Review the impact report at the bottom of the modal to confirm what's about to change.
  6. Save, then Preview.
  7. Adjust if needed, then Publish.

What used to take an afternoon now takes a few minutes.

Retiring a category across many locations

  1. Filter to the locations tagged with the category you're retiring (for example, Category: Temporary Parking).
  2. Select all.
  3. Edit → Category → Remove → choose the retired category → Save.
  4. Preview, then Publish.

If removing a category would leave any location with none, Bulk Edit blocks the save and lists the affected locations, since every location must keep at least one category. Add a replacement category first, or use Replace instead of Remove.

Rolling out a naming convention with Find and replace

  1. Filter to the locations you want to rename (often by Category).
  2. Select all.
  3. Edit → Name → Find and replace.
  4. Enter your search term and replacement.
  5. Check the live match counter to confirm you're hitting the right number of locations.
  6. Save, Preview, and Publish.

Tip: Try a small batch first. Search for a single building, run the find-and-replace on that selection only, and confirm the result before doing the whole campus.

Adding a new category to many locations

  1. Make sure the new category exists in your Category Manager.
  2. Filter to the locations you want to add it to.
  3. Select all.
  4. Edit → Category → Append → choose the new category → Save.
  5. Preview, then Publish.

Append preserves any existing categories on each location. Use Replace only when you want to overwrite.

Pre-launch QA: staging, previewing, and publishing safely

  1. Make all your changes, individually or in bulk, over as many sessions as you need. Each one is saved as a revision.
  2. Filter the table by Last edited by: you and Status: Unpublished to see everything that's pending.
  3. Click Preview to open the live map with your revisions applied.
  4. Walk through the map and confirm everything looks right.
  5. Return to the Location Manager and Publish.

This is the safest launch pattern: nothing is visitor-visible until you say so, and the Preview is a faithful representation of what they'll see.

 

Tips for working at scale

  • Do not delete if you don't mean it -  delete currently bypasses publishing 
  • Filter first, select second. It's faster to narrow the table and then "select all" than to pick rows by hand.
  • Preview before you publish. Even experienced admins catch mistakes here.
  • Use single edits for one-offs. Bulk Edit shines on many; the single-field editor wins on one.

 

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