Once you specify two dictionaries, the tool displays the differences between the two dictionaries. You can toggle between viewing dictionary names and labels by selecting Dictionary Names from the View menu. If you would like to only see changes that will potentially result in destructive changes (e.g., decreased occurrences, reduced item length, etc.), you can select Show Only Destructive Changes from the View menu. These destructive changes are shown in red.
After you have confirmed that you would like to reformat data with the displayed changes:
- Click on the Reformat Data button. The tool will create a new reformatted data file.
- A summary report with additional information about the newly created file—such as the number of records input and output by record type and a listing of invalid records—will be displayed.
- Newly defined fields in the output data file are blank filled.
- Record and item occurrences are dropped if the number of occurrences in the output file is less than the number of input occurrences.