Birdwatcher's Diary Manual

Birdwatcher's Diary User Manual

The Output Screen

In addition to saving and recalling sightings in single-day files using the Archive screen, Birdwatcher's Diary also allows you to export data from one or more days of sightings in other formats, by selecting Output from the Options Menu.

There are four different types of output selected by the Output Type pop-up menu:

Report produces a simple text report summarizing the information contained in the active sightings on your main screen (which may be either a single day's sightings, multiple day's sightings, or a "life list" produced by the life list feature of the software). The report contains the name of the species, the count and whether it was heard only, the date and time, and the location of the sighting.
Spreadsheet produces a tab-delimited or CSV text file (depending on your choice of Field Separator in the Settings) which contains any or all of the different pieces of information which are recorded for each active sighting. When you select Spreadsheet, you'll see to the right a Configure button which lets you choose precisely which pieces of information, and in what order, are included in the output. Tap any item to shift it from the "Include" column on the left to the "Exclude" column on the right, and use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to reorder the items.
Google Map produces a "kml" file which you can import into Google Maps to provide a permanent display of your sightings that you can share. See below for more information.
Master List lets you save a new master list of species. See below for more information.

For all types of output, there are some other features in common:

Output Method: The output can be sent by Email, saved to your SD Card, or uploaded to Dropbox. If you output a new Master List, it will be saved to the Master Lists folder in the Birdwatcher's Diary folder on the SD Card or Dropbox. Other output formats are simply saved to the Birdwatcher's Diary folder itself. Unlike the Archive screen, where you can select multiple choices and save a day's archive to, say, the SD Card and Dropbox simultaneously, on the Output screen you select just one form of Output at a time. If you choose to Email output, the Settings screen lets you provide a default Email To address, so whether you typically email output to yourself, or perhaps to your local birding listserve, you can save that address and not have to re-enter it each time.
Filename: The filename is automatically set to a suitable starting value, but you can then change it to whatever is more appropriate. In general you will not want to change the 3-letter extension which is shown, however.
Sort Order: The order of the sightings (in the first three formats) or species (in the Master List format) in the output file.
Group by Location: For all output formats other than Master List, this checkbox lets you group your sightings in the output file by location.

Producing a Google Map

Go to the Google Maps website (maps.google.com)
If you have never done so, establish a free Google Maps account (basically entering an email address, which does not have to be a GMail account, a password, and other information).
On the upper-left of the screen, click on "My Maps" (in the latest version, you access this in the search bar)
Click on "Create"
Click on "Import"
Click on "Select a file from your computer" and find the sighting map file that you uploaded from Birdwatcher's Diary.
Click "Upload" and there's your map. Using the "Link" button you can copy a link to the map to send to your friends.

Using Google Earth (which is a separate standalone application from Google, not accessed via your web browser) is even easier. There is only one constraint, which is that the file you upload (the Upload Filename) must end in ".kml" With this file on your desktop, and assuming you have downloaded and installed the Google Earth application, you'll simply double-click on the file to "fly in" to a 3-dimensional map of your sightings.

Creating New Master Lists

You can download master lists for dozens of countries, all 50 states, and even some counties directly into Birdwatcher's Diary from the Stevens Creek Software web site from the Master Lists screen. However, there are a number of reasons why you might want to modify these lists or create your own. First of all, there are constant changes (splits, lumps, renames) to the "complete" list of all species, and there are also periodic changes to country and state lists as species change territories, become extirpated, or are simply spotted in a particular area for the first time. We try to keep up, but it's impossible to do so fast enough. After all, you might be the first one to see a Shy Albatross in California only to discover that it's not on our California list! From the main screen, you can select Add Species in the Options Menu to add it so you can record it, but then you'll want to update the California list so you don't have to do that again. That's one example of why you might want to modify an existing list. Then there are reasons to create your own lists, like a list of "target species" for your big day effort, or a short list of birds for your country or state or county that will include 99% of the species you'll see on your typical outings, but which is much shorter than the full list of species which might contain species you can only see on pelagic trips, or species that have only been seen once in ten years, etc.

In Master List mode, you'll see two choices: All Species and Checked Only. The former is appropriate when you have added (or deleted) a few species from an existing master list, and simply want to update it. The latter is more appropriate for creating your own lists. So you can start with your state list, say, and then quickly go through it and tap all the species you have a chance to see on your big day (these aren't "real" sightings, and you'll delete them later). Nowhaving done that, select Checked Only and save the new short list with an appropriate name.

Of course, you can also create your own lists on a computer and then download them into Birdwatcher's Diary. How to do that is described in the Master Lists chapter.

Read the other sections of the manual: