BSBI Recording App
The BSBI Recording App has been developed to provide a modern and user-friendly way for recorders to upload vascular plant survey data. We now recommend the Recording App as by far the most efficient way of inputting vascular plant records to the BSBI database. The app is available both for BSBI members and for non-members.
The new software can be installed as an app on mobile devices for recording in the field, and through a web browser on lap- and desk-top computers for editing records earlier entered in the field, and for desk-based data entry. Records upload to a Recording App ‘workspace’ and are then confirmed by vicecounty recorders and transferred to the main database.
Getting started
See here for a general introduction to the app and much extra information on the BSBI website, and on the page that then opens follow the Getting started tab.
A range of survey types is supported, aiming to cater for both casual records and structured surveys (including also some special-purpose survey types, e.g. the New Year Plant Hunt). There are three basic formats: single one-off finds; a ‘casual’ sets of records from different locations or dates; and lists obtained for a single site and data (which can be ‘in the field’ or from field-notes, ‘traditional’ recording cards, etc.). Further survey options are being developed.
Otherwise
We will still welcome records as paper lists for those unable to access the app. We would strongly urge that records entered on spreadsheets should however be input using the app in ‘Start a new survey’ mode. Failing that, spreadsheets in most formats can still be entered by vicecounty recorders.
JR 3 Dec 2025
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I’m running Excel for Mac 2011. Neither of the Excel formats seem to work. the .xls one looks OK but the drop-down lists don’t open. .xlsm needs ActiveX which Macs don’t like. time to have a go with Libre Office.
Hi John – thanks for this feedback – disappointing! I don’t try Excel on my Mac(s) and so neither Phill nor I have been able to test the .xls and .xlsm versions OFF Windows. (I HAVE tried them in the freely-downloadable version of XL for iOS on the iPad, but that fails, apparently due to THAT version not being able to run macros.)
Doh.
I have both OpenOffice and LibreOffice (and indeed NeoOffice, which is designed specifically for OSX), and am impressed by their usability. Besides Calc – the OO/LO version of XL you’ll be using – I have done a lot of DTP work with them, in Writer, and use them particularly for opening and editing Word docs.
Let me know how you get on.
For various complicated reasons (which I don’t fully understand when Phill explains them!), the LO versions seem to run slower than the XL versions. This is noticeable when the FIRST entry is made in the various fields, presumably as the macros run for the first time that session. THEN they are almost instantaneous.
Thanks for you interest.