Fields are colour-coded; required fields (minimal metadata) are yellow, strongly recommended fields are purple, optional fields are white.

You can toggle between all, and the required fields, by going to “Settings” and selecting “Show Required Columns”.

Double click on field headers to see the definition of the field, guidance on filling in the field, and examples of how data might look structured according to the constraints of the validator.

Picklists of controlled vocabulary are available for many fields. There are dropdown menus for some, and multi-select options for others (e.g. Signs and Symptoms). You can also see the list of terms in multi-select columns by clicking once in the multi-select box.

When you’re done entering your data, you can validate values by clicking on “Validate”. Errors and missing information in required fields will be coloured red.

When you’ve entered and validated your data, you can save it as a .xlsx, .xls, .tsv or csv format file, by clicking on “File” followed by “Save as”. You can also format your data for IRIDA upload (you will need to perform the upload yourself), or use your entered data to create a GISAID submission form (you will need to add additional information, and perform the upload yourself), by clicking on "File" followed by "Export to".

If you have questions, or require assistance, contact emma.griffiths@bccdc.ca.