---
title: Prepare a file
description: "Choose works and a society, check your publisher details and prepare a registration file that you then send yourself."
keywords: [prepare, file, CWR, society, new registration, update, publisher details, check and prepare, can't prepare yet, registration file]
---

Preparing builds a [CWR](/docs/cwr/glossary#cwr) registration file from works you have saved, for the society you choose, and checks the works as it does. TrackForge sends nothing: you send the file yourself.

What a prepared file holds: for each work its title and identifiers, its writers, its publishers, the shares for each right and any recordings, together with your publisher details and the society the file is for.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  W1["The work: title<br/>and identifiers"] --> F["The file"]
  W2["Its writers"] --> F
  W3["Its publishers"] --> F
  W4["Shares for each right,<br/>totalling 100%"] --> F
  W5["Recordings, if any"] --> F
  S1["Your publisher details"] --> F
  S2["The society it is for"] --> F
```

## Before you start

- You must be an owner or editor. Save the works first: a file uses the saved version of each.
- Add your publisher details and choose your societies in **Settings**. The form copies them. See [Publisher details](/docs/workspace/settings/publisher-details) and [Societies](/docs/workspace/settings/societies).

## Steps

1. Open **Catalogue** and tick the works for the file. To put several in one file, search for each and tick it.
2. Press **Prepare selected works**. The page **Prepare a file** opens with the card **Prepare a CWR file**, in five numbered steps. The first, **Works included**, lists your works with the saved version of each. If you chose too many works, it says so.
3. **Who it goes to**. In **Who are you sending this file to?**, choose a society under **Your workspace societies**. If you do not know yet, choose **Not sure yet — general checks only**. A note says whether TrackForge checks that society's own rules or only the general CWR rules. If only the general rules, read the society's current guidance before you send. A society marked "unavailable" cannot be prepared yet: open the fold under the list, which begins "Why", to read the reason. A society marked "choose its profile in Settings" has no profile yet. Choose one on [Societies](/docs/workspace/settings/societies), then come back.
4. **What you are sending**. In **What are you preparing?**, choose **New registration with this recipient** for a work that society does not hold yet (a [new registration](/docs/cwr/glossary#transaction_type_nwr)), or **Update an existing registration** for one you are changing (an [update](/docs/cwr/glossary#transaction_type_rev)). A work may already be registered elsewhere even when TrackForge has no history for it. Choose an update for those.
5. **Your publisher details**. Check **Publisher name (as registered)**, **Publisher IPI number** and **Short code for your filenames**. They are filled in from Settings. Change them only if this file needs something different. The code is the 2 or 3 letters your society gave you for naming files, not your [IPI](/docs/cwr/glossary#ipi).
6. **Check and prepare**. Press **Check and prepare file**. It stays off until you have chosen a society and a purpose and filled in all three publisher details. A line under it tells you if the society or the purpose is missing. If the button is still off, check the three publisher details in step 5.

![The Prepare a CWR file card, with the works included, the society the file goes to, what is being sent, the publisher details and the Check and prepare file button.](/docs/img/workspace/prepare-file.png)

## What you will see

If the checks pass, the file's page opens with **Your file is ready** and the file name, and a strip, **Where this file is**, with the stages **Prepared**, **Sent** and **Response**. Prepared is not sent. In the list of files and on Today, the badge reads **Prepared — not sent** until you have sent the file and recorded it. Next, [download, send and record it](/docs/workspace/files/send).

If a check fails, no file is made. The page says **Can't prepare yet** and lists each problem under **TrackForge’s checks on this file**, with what is wrong and how to fix it.

- **Blocks file preparation** must be fixed. **Does not block preparation — review before proceeding** can be left.
- **Fix this work** opens the work at the right place. **What this means** opens the explanation of that problem.
- A note on accented letters says **Nothing to fix**.

After you fix and save a work, press **Back to the file**, then **Prepare latest saved versions**. The form opens again with your earlier settings.

## If something goes wrong

- **A work was saved again after you chose it.** Press **Use the latest saved versions** and the list shows the version that will go in the file.
- **A problem on this list.** Three common ones are explained at [Publisher IPI number](/docs/cwr/problems-and-fixes#sender-id), [publisher name](/docs/cwr/problems-and-fixes#sender-name) and [shares that do not total 100%](/docs/cwr/problems-and-fixes#shares-total). Those pages are shared with the Workbench, TrackForge's free public tool, so "Where to fix it" there names the Workbench.

## Related

- [Download, send and record](/docs/workspace/files/send)
- [Fix problems on a work](/docs/workspace/catalogue/fix-problems)
- [Publisher details](/docs/workspace/settings/publisher-details)