CiviCRM has a useful feature called batch updating. For example, you might have a group of contacts where you want to update the value in a custom field. You could go to each contact and update them one at a time, but this would be time consuming. This is where you can use batch updating.
In this recipe we will update some participant information from a recent event.
Here, prepare a set of custom fields for use with individuals and have them added to a profile that we will use for our batch update. Batch updating works with any contact fields.
In this example we created a custom field called Event outcome with some checkbox options. We then added the field to a new profile called Volunteer event outcome.
Navigate to Search | Find Participants and search for contacts that attended a volunteer meeting.
Use the actions drop-down menu to create a smart group.
Navigate to Contacts | Manage groups and select the smart group you just created.
From the actions...