Can you batch-change all authors in the CP?

Question

Context: When we insert content for clients on full-service projects, sometimes we leave the original author. This author is usually from my shop and has admin-level permissions. When we turn the site over to clients, many times they can't override an admin due to their own (appropriate) permissions.

Question: Is there a way to batch-change all authors to either another author or null? Forethought is obviously the best thing in this case, but it's a pain to go into each entry and remove/change authors, and I'm lazy. I wasn't able to find a workaround or plugin. This question shows what to do in the database, but I'm wondering about the CP.

Answer 1

There's currently no way to do so natively in the CP, but there is a round-about way to do it using a CSV file with a pair of indispensable plugins from Bob Olde Hampsink:

• Import
• Export

Do the export/import 2-step

1. Use the Export plugin to spit out just the Title and Author from the section you want. Open up the resulting CSV file in whatever editor you want, you don't necessary have to use Excel or OpenOffice in this case since it's just text.

2. Do a find/replace on the author with the new author. Save the file.

3. Open up in the Import plugin, and again, tell it what section you want and to replace the data. On the next screen, confirm Title and Author are already selected for you. Title should be checked as how to match up the data. Run the import.

You're basically telling the plugin to leave everything alone except to replace the Author and use the Title (which we exported before) as the source.

Rinse and repeat with as many sections you have.