Birdwatcher's Diary Manual

Birdwatcher's Diary User Manual

The Lists Screen

Tap on the List button on the bottom center of the main screen to get access to the Lists screen.

Across the top you will see three or four possible sources for Master Lists:

Internal are lists stored in the internal memory of the device.
SD Card are lists stored on your SD card, in a Master Lists folder inside a Birdwatcher's Diary folder (both folders are created when the software is first run. Files on the SD card are accessible, whether you have a removable card, or whether it is a "virtual" card which can be accessed by plugging the device into a computer. This provides you one simple way to transfer your own lists, made on your computer, into the software.
Dropbox (represented by a blue open box icon) represents the Dropbox cloud service. This icon will appear if, in the Input/Output section of the Settings, you have checked the Dropbox Active option. Now tapping on this source will display a list of files in the Master Lists folder inside the Birdwatcher's Diary folder inside the Apps folder in your Dropbox folder (which is located online in the "cloud," and may also be duplicated on one or more of your computers. Assuming that is the case, this mechanism allows you to create a master list on your computer, save it into the Master Lists folder on your computer, and have essentially instant access (after your computer first uploads it to the Dropbox cloud) to it from Birdwatcher's Diary running on your Android device. For more about Dropbox, and how to establish a free account, read this Appendix.
Stevens Creek Software gives you access to our master repository of dozens of lists, representing all 50 states and dozens of countries around the world. If you about to go on a trip, be sure to load the list or lists that will be of interest before you go, so they'll be stored safely on your device, and won't require Internet access (and possibly roaming charges!) to download.

Underneath the choice of sources for the lists that you are going to download are two buttons: Replace and Merge, which do just what they say. Usually you'll be replacing one list with another, but there are some lists (for example, a list of "spuhs") which are designed to be merged with other lists.

IMPORTANT: The "active list" on your main screen includes not only the master list itself but also your currently active sightings. If you haven't archived your sightings, and read in (in Replace mode) a new list, you will lose all your currently active sightings (not your archived sightings). You will be warned if you try to do this, but if you answer "Go ahead," you should understand the consequences!

And finally below these buttons is the list of lists. Tap on a list to retrieve it and make it the new master checklist and, if the source was either Dropbox or Stevens Creek Software, to copy it to your set of Internally-stored lists (which means that from that point on they will be accessible even if you lack Internet access). If you hold down on the name of the list, a popup menu reading Delete will give you a chance to delete that list (only for Internal and SD Card lists; you can't delete lists stored in Dropbox or at Stevens Creek Software).

Creating your own list

Creating your own list is simplicity itself. You simply create a text file with one species on each line and one or more pieces of information on each line, separated by tabs. The possible information is:

Name of the species
Bird-banding or other code for the species
Scientific name
'"Local name"
Note

The "local name" is a place for the name of the species in a language other than English (Spanish, French, etc.) or the name of the species in English but using a name used "locally" rather than one recognized internationally (e.g., in Britain, "Loons" are called "Divers").

Only the first item is mandatory, others are optional. To omit items at the end, simply leave them off. To omit an item in the middle, just use a tab. Thus the following would be valid input files (of very short lists!), where -> represents the Tab character:

Example 1: (The simplest format, just a list of species)

Bufflehead American
Avocet

Example 2: (Including the code, the scientific name, and a local name in French. Note that the first line contains only four items, and omits the note or fifth item, while the second line contains all five items)

Bufflehead->BUFF->Bucephala albeola->Petit Garrot
American Avocet->AMAV->Recurvirostra americana->Avocette d'Amérique->Rare/Accidental

Example 3: (The name and scientific name. Because item two, the code, is omitted, a place must be left for it by using two Tabs between the first and third items, effectively providing a blank value for the code

Bufflehead->->Bucephala albeola
American Avocet->->Recurvirostra american

If the file contains any accented characters or characters in non-Roman alphabets it must be "UTF-8 encoded" - for more about this see this document.

You don't need to worry about the order of the items in the list, because, using its own "master reference lists," Birdwatcher's Diary will add in the proper Scientific Name, Bird-Banding Code, and Taxonomic Order for the species.

The exception to this rule occurs if you want to create a list of something other than birds, which is perfectly acceptable. Butterflies, perhaps, or Dragonflies or Snakes or anything else. In this case, the order in which the software finds the items in the list will be assumed to be taxonomic order.

Once you have prepared a list on your computer, you can either transfer it into the proper folder on the SD Card of the Android device, or put it into the proper folder in your Dropbox account, and download it into the software from there.

Read the other sections of the manual: