How to Format Your SoftMouse.NET Free Data Import Sheet

Here are the steps to import your data into SoftMouse.NET using our Free Data Import Template!

Please fill in the Animal Tab and the Mating Tab (if applicable) by copying and pasting your existing data into the corresponding columns. 

Important Note before beginning:  Please fill in your Animal Tab data with only one animal per row. If you include more than one animal in a row, the import tool will treat it as a single animal. 

HOW TO FILL IN THE ANIMAL TAB 
(4 sections: Cage Information, Animal Information, Parent Information, and Genotype Information)

Cage Information section (blue columns):

1. If you have a naming convention for your cages, please enter a "Cage Tag" and/or a "Cage Barcode". If you leave these fields blank, the animals will be imported without a cage.
2. If you wish to denote different cage types or room locations, please enter this information under "Cage Type". If not, leave blank.

Animal Information section (green columns):

1. Enter an animal ID into the "Physical Tag" (good for sequential numbering) and/or "Earmark" (good for repetitive IDs, like ear notches). Physical Tag is not mandatory unless the animal is mating. If mating, then the Physical Tag entered in the Animal Tab should match a corresponding Physical Tag in the Mating Tab.
2. Date of Birth is mandatory.
3. Sex is mandatory. Enter a sex, as either M, F, U or Male, Female, Unknown. 
4. State is mandatory. Enter one of the following states that best matches the Animal: Stock, Mating, Ended, and Pup. You can use Ended for any animal that is no longer an active part of the colony. 
5. If you enter an animal as Ended, it is mandatory to fill in the End Date (e.g. date of death) and an End Type (e.g. Euthanized, Found Dead, Transferred, etc.). If you do not know the End Date, you can simply estimate a date, e.g. today's date.
6. Mouseline / Animal Strain is mandatory. 
7. Columns L-W are all non-mandatory fields. Fill in these columns as fits best with your data! If you do not have any of this information or if it is irrelevant, please leave as blank. Columns such as Status, Notice, and Category will turn into drop-down fields in your SoftMouse.NET account. They are useful to flag animals (e.g. on a diet, in an experiment, reserved for breeding, etc.)

Parent Information Section (orange columns):

1. Where you have the parent information, add the Father's ID in the "Father Tag" column and the Mother ID in "Mother Tag1" column.
2. If the animal originates from a harem breeding, please add the additional potential mothers in "Mother Tag2" and "Mother Tag3". 
3. The field Parent Cage works as follows: - if you fill it in, and no parents are listed in Father Tag and Mother Tag columns, it will look for the corresponding cage in Column A. If it finds parents (at least 42 days older than the mouse in question), it will automatically list them as Mother and Father and create the relationships. If there is no match, Parent Cage will be imported as a Comment for the mouse. - if you fill it in and at least one Parent column is filled in, Parent Cage will be imported as a Comment for the mouse.

Genotype Information section (yellow columns):

1. For genotyped animals, add the Genotype information in columns AC-AL. Please note Gene and Allele values are case-sensitive.
   
2. For non-genotyped animals, leave these columns blank.

HOW TO FILL IN THE MATING TAB:
(3 sections: Mating Information, Breeder Information, and Litter Information)

Mating Information section (blue columns):

1. Mating Tag is mandatory. If you uniquely identify your Matings with IDs, enter this under "Mating Tag". If not, please simply number your matings, starting from 1. 
2. Mouseline / Animal Strain is mandatory and represents the Mouseline / Animal Strain for the resulting pups of this mating.
3. Mating Set Up Date is mandatory. If you do not know the date, please enter an estimated date (e.g. start of the month or today's date)
4. If the mating is not currently active, enter the disband date to denote when the breeders were separated..

Breeder Information section (green columns):

1. Enter the Male ID and Female ID in "Male Tag" and "Female Tag". 
2. If the Mating is a Harem breeding, enter the additional Female IDs in "Female Tag 1" and "Female Tag 2"
3. If the Mating is no longer active, add the date on which the animals were retired from the mating, ie the separation date

Current Litter Information section (orange columns):

Only enter unweaned litters into these columns. The import tool will recognize all weaned litters from this Mating based on the Parent Information you put in the Animal Tab.

1. If you ID your litters individually, enter this ID into the "Litter Tag", otherwise leave blank.
2. Date of Birth is mandatory if you enter a Litter.
3. Enter comments if any about the litter (e.g. number of pups)

Once you have filled in this sheet, then proceed to import it as follows:

1. Login to your SoftMouse.NET account
2. Navigate to the Import icon in the blue menu bar
3. Select the user under who you wish timport the data
4. Click the Upload File button
5. Locate and select this file from your local computer
6. Click Check for Errors
7. Correct any error messages that come up in your data sheet. 
   Note: warning messages are just notices, you can leave your data as is for warnings. However, errors must be corrected before proceeding with the import.
   For more information on the meaning of the errors and warnings, please navigate to: https://www.softmousefaq.com/SoftMouse.NET+Data+Import+Warning+and+Error+Chart
   
8. Click Proceed with Import

If you have any questions or need assistance proceeding with your import, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] and a representative will be happy to assist you.