National Archives - Kew Tips?

Lee - Am I correct in thinking you can't do this anymore?

 

Lee - Am I correct in thinking you can't do this anymore?

 

Andy, I'm not sure what facilities, if any, "Discovery" has for exporting data. But what I show above for building a search query no longer works as that was a function of the old and sadly departed catalogue.

 

Here's an updated way of using "Discovery" to export a whole record series to a spreadsheet (up to a maximum of 1,000 pieces).
The one problem is that it uses the truncated description field. Often that will not be a problem but it is for CAB 44 for example, as the important information about each file is cut off.

It is quite straight forward to export Discovery data. Click on "Advanced Search": http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/search/advanced-search

1. In the "all of these words" field type an asterix *;
2. Scroll down to the "Search within" section and put the record series in the "Reference" field, e.g. "CAB 44";
3. Hit the "Search" button;
4. When your search results appear, click the "Download" link and save as a CSV, etc.

A tip for sorting the references in your spreadsheet.
If you sort by the document references it is not going to work as expected as the results will be something like "CAB 44/1" followed by "CAB 44/12", rather than "CAB 44/2". Therefore sort using Coloumn J - "URLParams".

Screen shots for exporting data from TNA Discovery catalogue:





Lee

 

Lee,

Thanks very much for the tips. I have successfuly downloaded the WO171 series into a Spreadsheet. Now I am trying to sort into numerical order. Could you explain what you mean by "Therefore sort using Coloumn J - "URLParams"."

I tried it, but it didn't sort as i had expected.

Thanks from a computer numpty,

Regards

Tom

 

Tom,

Most of the main WO series (Including WO 171) and other interesting files are already on Excel on here. See the link below:

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/24834-the-national-archives-catalogue-on-excel/

Cheers
Andy

 

Tom, that was partly an assumption on my part that the URLParams column would always sort with the document references in the correct order. Looking at TNA data, mostly it seems their database ID numbers run in order with the document references.

It is possible that may not always hold true, especially when new documents are added to a particular record series later on.

In case it was an issue with the actual sort, the way to do it in Excel is to:

1. Select all columns (CTRL-A);
2. Click the "Sort and Filter" button and select "Custom sort...";
3. In the "Sort By" field select "URLparams" from the drop down list;
4. Hit "OK" button

That will then sort all the rows using the URLparams column for ordering.
(If you don't select all columns first then just the URLparams column will sort itself in alpha order but will be misaligned with the other columns).

 

Just to add Tom, there's another problem in exporting the WO 171 data from Discovery. There's over 11,000 records and the export is limited to 1,000 only.
A couple of things you could do to export the data in chunks.

Do it by date range, e.g 1939 to 1939, 1940 to 1940, etc.

Another way is using the reference, e.g. for records WO 171/100 to WO 171/999, you could use the search reference WO 171/??? and then in the thousands, use WO 171/1???, then WO 171/2???, etc. And then copy and paste each individual export in to a single spreadsheet.

 

Andy,

Thanks but I couldn't find WO171 on the post that you linked too - perhaps that's me not seeing the wood for the trees though.

lee,

Thanks for the tips, I'll have another go.

Regards

Tom

 

Cheers Tom - It looks like some must have been lost in the transfer to the new forum. Whoever said change is good is a lying bastid-I hate change and always will !

 

Anyone been to Kew in the last couple of weeks?

How was the ordering service? I've been waiting over an hour for nearly all of my orders yesterday and today. So much so I got the staff to order six extra files for me yesterday just before last orders at 5pm as there was a massive delay. I should mention files normally arrive in 30 to 40 minutes if not quicker.

Anyone know whats going on?

 

Drew

Doesn't sound too good!! I'm booked in tomorrow so glad I pre ordered some large files to be getting on with

John

 

They were having some troubles with the lift that brings up the documents the other day. Tuesday I think that was.

 

They will probably be blaming it on the heatwave

 

Hope they get the delays sorted out, I am back there on Tuesday and Wednesday with my Aussie mate.
Anyone else from WW2Talk going to be there?

 

There seems to be some new staff and wondered if it was that or think I heard someone mention there's new software or something to do with ordering. Ho Hum

See you tomorrow morning John - Mines a large Latte :p

 

Mike I'll be there briefly in the morning and evening. Be good to catch up with you both.

John and Andy mine's a black tea tomorrow.

 

What you telling me for

 

Yep, will be good to see you again Lee.
We both have to renew our Readers Tickets on Tuesday, hope it doesen't take too long.

 

Mike

I hope to be there Wednesday - if I can afford it after buying the teas and coffees today

John