# How do I change several rules at once?

Tick the boxes of the rules you want, or hold Shift to take a range, and the bar under the table copies, cuts, duplicates, moves or deletes them together. You can also drag a rule by its handle, paste rules with Ctrl V, and change one cell in all the chosen rules at once.

Updated 1 November 2026

## Change several rules, step by step

1. Tick the box of a rule to choose it. Hold Shift and tick another to choose the range between them, or tick a group's box to choose all of its rules. The bar under the table then acts on what is chosen.
2. Choose an action in the bar: **Copy**, **Cut**, **Duplicate**, **Move to group** or **Delete**.
3. To paste, point at a row and press Ctrl V. The rules land below it. In a grouped table they take the group's value, such as its property set.
4. To move a rule, drag it by the handle beside its box. Inside its group only the order changes. Into another group, the tip lists every cell that changes before you let go. Hold Alt to copy instead of move.
5. To change one cell in all the chosen rules, change it in one of them. **Edit cells together** is on by default, and the pop-up says how many rules it changes. Choose **Edit cells together** to turn it off: a change is then made in the one rule you open.
6. Choose **Undo** (or Ctrl Z) to take the last change back.

## The details

- **Copy and paste.** Ctrl C copies, Ctrl X cuts. If the place already has a rule that is the same, the paste says so and asks whether to paste only the new ones or all of them. The pasted rules stay marked, and the note under the table offers **Undo**.
- **Duplicate.** Ctrl D puts a copy right under a rule and opens its property cell, since a new rule usually differs from its twin only there. The copy is marked as a repeat until it differs.
- **Move to a group.** **Move to group** does the same as dragging, without dragging: type to find a property set or a list of classes, or name a new property set. Alt with the up and down arrow keys moves the chosen rules one row at a time.
- **Edit cells together.** On by default. With several rules chosen, a change made in one of them is made in all of them: the pop-up says how many. Turn it off in the bar to change one rule at a time.

## Keep reading

Next: [How do I give one test to many properties?](https://ifcchecker.com/help/ids-many-properties/)

Related:

- [How do I write and change rules?](https://ifcchecker.com/help/ids-rules/)
- [How do I give one test to many properties?](https://ifcchecker.com/help/ids-many-properties/)
- [How do I write an IDS in the IDS editor?](https://ifcchecker.com/help/write-an-ids/)

[Workflows and help](https://ifcchecker.com/help/) / [The IDS editor](https://ifcchecker.com/help/collections/ids/)