We manually created and have since amended many of our assets using the import tool and have have had no problems but I agree it can be a bit scary!
Not an official answer but basically I have found:
- If you change a value on your exported sheet it will be changed by the import. This is true for everything except for whichever field you have theSync Based On, so if you want to change an actual location name then you would have to edit it in the Locations section rather than via import.
- With Add New Entries checked, any locations that don't already exist in the db (i.e. exactly as spelled) would be created as a new location.
- Deleting a value on your exported spreadsheet will clear the value in the db, unless you have checkedIgnore Blank Fields, in which case it just leaves whatever is already in the DB alone.
- Any location you want to get rid of you can do at the same time by putting a Y in the Delete field
- Logging out & back in after doing a large import seems to be necessary on some occasions to refresh the data. I had a heart-stopping moment where I did a large re-import of assets, ran a search to check my changes & it looked like I had messed up but actually it was all fine
As a rule I tend to make sureIgnore Blank FieldsandAbort Import on First Errorare checked, withAdd New Entriesunchecked, that way you get fewer surprises & can amend any errors on the spreadsheet rather than trying to figure it out after it has been imported, especially if there are any typos as you can easily duplicate records that way!
As long as you have your original, unchanged exported sheet saved somewhere then worst case scenario if it gets messed up would be to re-import your original sheet again.
Good luck!