The bulk replacement tool is an administrative function within Opus 2 that enables a user to replace multiple documents at once, saving both time and effort. 


Bulk replacing documents on Opus 2 involves two main stages:

  1. Uploading the replacement documents to a temporary folder and ensuring they have a common metadata field assigned that matches the original documents on Opus 2, such as a disclosure ID
  2. Mapping the replacement documents via the relevant metadata field in the bulk replacement tool and processing the replacements


In order to use the bulk replacement tool it is critical to use / match documents on a metadata field that contains a unique value.


To make the bulk replacement process as easy as possible, we would recommend naming the replacement files as per the unique identifier you would like to use, for example, the disclosure ID, exhibit references or bates numbers etc. Where this is not possible, you can apply the unique identifier to the corresponding replacement documents via the properties tool or using the import metadata tool and a CSV (comma separated value load file).


Uploading Replacement Documents


  1. Create a new temporary folder on your workspace.  After you have completed the bulk replacement exercise you need to delete this folder and it's contents.
  2. Upload the replacement documents to the newly created folder.
  3. Once the replacement documents have been uploaded, apply the metadata field that you intend on using to match the replacement documents to the original documents.  For example, if your original documents all have a disclosure ID, and this is a unique value on the workspace, you would need to apply the same disclosure ID to the new replacement documents (in this example the metadata field is labelled as disclosure ID but the actual metadata field name is Doc_ID).  The documents should then have the same metadata as the original documents as per the screenshot below, where you can see both sets of documents have matching Disclosure IDs.  You can do this metadata exercise either by using the properties dialogue, importing metadata from a CSV or by titling your replacement documents after the disclosure ID and downloading a CSV from the folder and simply copying that information from the document title field to the disclosure ID / Doc_ID field.



Bulk Replace


  1. Once you have done steps 1 to 3 above, right-click on the temporary folder containing the replacement documents and select “Bulk doc replace”. The dialog in the screenshot below will appear. 
  2. Type the underlying metadata field name that you have used to match the replacement documents to the original documents into the “Custom Field” box and click “Go”. The metadata field name is case sensitive and is not to be confused with the metadata field label which is disclosure ID.



  1. As you can see from the screenshot above, the tool informs you which documents possess exact matches by listing the document title of the original document in the right-hand column.  If you see "no match found" or "too many matches" then please see further information below.  In the example above, all of the documents have an exact match. 
  2. Click “Replace”. The tool will then run through each replacement – once a replacement is complete, the “View Document” hyperlinks appear on the right-hand side and clicking on this takes you directly to the replaced document in the main bundles.



  1. If, at any point, you need to stop the bulk replacement process, you can click “Stop”. 
  2. Once the last document in the list possesses a “View Document” hyperlink, the process is complete. 
  3. You can now delete the temporary folder containing the replacement documents. 


Further Information - Replacing documents without a unique metadata ID


Where original documents do not have any unique metadata identifiers, you can apply a dummy metadata field (which do not exist elsewhere on the workspace, e.g. 1, 2, 3 etc.) to the replacement and original documents to match the documents correctly.


Once the bulk replacement process is complete, these dummy Disclosure IDs can then be removed from the original documents.


Further Information - Duplicate and zero matches


Too many matches - this means that there are two or more documents on the workspace which have the metadata field you are using to match the replacement documents.  For example, you have two documents in the hearing bundle assigned with the disclosure ID E000001.  In this situation the easiest solution is to use the find tool on the documents page and search for "E000001".  Once you can see all of the documents with E000001 in the disclosure ID field you can leave the main / master version of the document that you want to replace with E000001 in the disclosure ID metadata field and either delete the document, remove the metadata information or amend the metadata field so that it is not an exact match (E000001A). You can now run the bulk replacement tool.  We recommend not having duplicate documents on Opus 2 because this will cause confusion with annotating, tagging and custom bundles.  If you do have duplicates and wish to leave them on Opus 2 you will need to manually replace these as the bulk replace tool does not work with duplicates, as explained above.


No match found - this means that the metadata field you are using to match the replacement documents to is not present on the workspace.  To fix this we would recommend ensuring that the original document exists on the workspace and has the correct metadata information. if the document doesn't exist on the workspace already you can simply move the replacement document to the relevant location on the workspace.