Copying versus Sharing Factors within Miradi Projects

Copy and share are very different functions in Miradi, and it is important to know when to use each.

As a basic rule:

• If you want to show the same factor in multiple diagrams, use share. Otherwise, you will be creating duplicate content in your Miradi project file. For shared factors, edits to one instance of the factor will be reflected in all the other instances.
• If you want to create a new factor but it has a lot of the same basic content as an existing factor, copy the existing factor. A copied factor retains no relationship to the original factor; edits to one will not affect the other.
• If you want to create a totally new factor that does not already exist in your project and is different than all the other factors, use "Add Factor" to create a new factor.

The following factors should always be shared rather than copied or created anew: Targets, Threats, Strategies. Targets and Strategies should be shared between all Situation Models and Results Chains, and Threats should be shared across all relevant Situation Models.

Sharing ensures that you only have one version of these key factors in your Miradi project file. For example, when linking Threats to Targets and rating their impact, you only want one version of the Threat rated for all the relevant Targets, and vice versa. Similarly, when you review your Miradi project to see which Strategies are addressing a specific Target, it is important that you only have one version of the Target related to all the relevant Strategies.

It can also be helpful to share Threat Reduction Results if multiple Theories of Change or Strategies are addressing the same Threat Reduction Result. If you share Threat Reduction Results across all related Results Chains, you will be able to query your Miradi project to see all the Strategies that are contributing to the Result, and all the Targets that will benefit from those actions. This type of analysis requires that you have only a single version of each Strategy, Threat Reduction Result, and Target in your Miradi Project.

Learn more about how to share factors and why it is important:

• Copy and share actions treat factor data differently
• When it is important to share a factor
• Share factors in diagram or tree view
• Determine if a factor is already shared
• Identify duplicate content in a Miradi project
• Remove duplicate content in a Miradi project

Copy and share actions treat factor data differently

Copying an existing factor creates a new factor that includes the source factor’s summary data (ID, name etc.) and classifications, but not progress reports, measurements, etc. You can choose whether to include child elements, e.g. Indicators or Activities, with the copied factor. 

A copied factor retains no relationship to the original factor. When you edit one, it will not affect the other. 

A copied factor also does not retain any of the relationships to other diagram content. For example, if an existing Target is linked to a Threat in a Situation Model, a copy of that Target will not retain the link to the same Threat. You will have to create all new relationships for the new copied Target.

Sharing a factor means that the same factor is included on several diagrams, along with all its data and elements. Strategies, Threats, and Targets should always be shared between all diagrams to avoid duplication. Contributing Factors and Results can also be shared between diagrams of the same type.

Edits to one instance of a shared factor or element will be reflected in all other instances. For example, if you change the ID, Name, or Details of a shared factor, that change will be reflected in all other instances of that factor. The only exception is factor text styling, or the way the factor name appears in a diagram. Shared factors can use a different font size, style, and color in different diagrams.

Deleting a shared factor will only delete it from the current diagram. The other shared instances of the factor will still exist in all the other diagrams.

When it is important to share a factor

If you want to include the same factor, e.g., Target, Threat, or Strategy, in multiple Situation Models or Results Chain diagrams, it is important that you share the factor across the multiple diagrams. If instead you copy the factor, or create a brand new version of the same factor in each new model, you will be creating multiple versions of the same factor in your project database.

Creating many copies of key factors might be fine if Miradi were only a diagram tool, but since Miradi is creating a relational database behind the scenes of all your diagrams, it is important that you only have one version of each key factor, such as Targets, Threats and Strategies, in your project file. 

For example, if you want to query your Miradi project to see the full list of Threats affecting a Target, or the full list of Strategies intended to improve the health of a Target, you need to be sure that the single Target you are analyzing is related to all the relevant Threats and Strategies. If you instead of multiple versions of your Target, you will miss any Threats and Strategies that are linked to the duplicate version of your Target.

Share factors in diagram or tree view

For this example of how to share a factor we will use Targets, but the same rules apply to Threats and Strategies, or any factor that you would like to represent in multiple diagrams. You can copy and share factors in the diagram views or in the tree views.

Sharing factors in diagram view

In diagram view, select the factor you would like to share to another diagram and use the "..." menu to select "Share to".

In the "Share this factor" pop-up, choose the diagram that you would like the factor to appear in and click "Paste as Share".

Sharing factors in tree view

To share factors in tree views, select a factor and drag it over the new diagram you would like to share it with. For example, under WORK PLANNING > Actions, choose to display "All Results Chains", select a Strategy and drag it to another Results Chain in order to Share it with the new Results Chain. The next time you view your results chain diagrams, this shared strategy will appear in both diagrams.

Determine if a factor is already shared

Factors that are shared across multiple diagrams appear in italics. If a factor does not appear in any other diagrams in your project, it is not italicized. For example, in the image below, Coral Reefs are not shared and only exist in the current diagram while Seabirds are shared across multiple diagrams.

If you hover over a factor that has been shared, the Details panel that pops up will tell you where else that factor occurs in your Miradi project under "Shared with:".

A factor that only exists in the current diagram and has not been shared with any other diagrams, will not have any information about sharing.

Information about all the places a factor is shared in your Miradi project can also be found in the factor properties panel on the right of the diagram canvas. Open the factor properties and scroll down to the Shared With section.

Find duplicate content in a Miradi project file

If you copy a factor rather than share a factor you will create duplicate content. The easiest way to see if you have duplicate content in your Miradi project is to use the Factor Summary table. Under REPORTS & DATA, go to Factors and review the table. You should have only one instance of each of your factors in the table. In the example below, which is filtered to show only Targets, you can see that we have two versions of the Coral Reefs Target. You will want to remove this duplicate content from your project so you only have one instance of each factor.

You might have already noticed that multiple versions of the same Target are showing up in your Viability table (see the duplicate Coral Reef Target below),

or multiple versions of your Threats are showing up in your threat analysis. In the example below, an extra Coral Reefs Target can be seen across the top of the table, and a duplicate Diver & Anchor Damage Threat is included in the Threats list at the left. This means that a duplicate of the Coral Reefs Target and a duplicate of the Diver & Anchor Damage Threat appear in at least one diagram in the project.

Remove duplicate content from your projects

To remove duplicate content from your Miradi project, you will need to replace the duplicated factors with "shared" factors. The following sequence of steps can be useful for identifying and deleting duplicates:

• Go to REPORTS & DATA > Factors to identify where you have any duplicates:
  • Create unique identifiers for content that is duplicated, so that when you go to the diagrams containing the factors you will be able to tell which version of the factor you are looking at. For example, in the table below filtered to only show Targets, we have replaced the "A" identifiers for the two copies of the Coral Reefs Target with "A1" and "A2".

• In the same Factors table, you can use the Display selector to see all Shareable Factors Across Diagrams. In the example below, you can see that the A2 version of the Coral Reefs target is already shared across 2 Situation Models and 2 Results Chains. You might want to keep this version of the target since the other version (A1) only appears in one Situation Model.

• Go to the diagrams containing the factors (click on the blue links in the Factors table) and determine which version of the factor you want to keep, and which you want to delete. In diagram view, turn on the factor IDs using the Visibility tools in the left hand panel:

In most cases, you will want to keep the version of the duplicated factor that has the most content already developed, or the one that is already shared across the most diagrams. For example, you might have developed KEAs and Indicators for one version of the Target (e.g. A1 in the example above) but not the other. Keep the one with the KEAs and Indicators. Similarly, one version of a factor might already be shared across multiple diagrams, while the duplicate version might only show up in one diagram. You will want to share the version that already appears in many diagrams. Hover over the target in the diagram to see which diagrams the factor is shared with.

• Once you have deleted the duplicates and replaced the deleted factors with the correct factors (via sharing), return to the Factor Summary table and confirm that you have deleted all of your duplicate content.