If you have two or more projects that have quotas based on the same combinations of variables, you can save time by copying an existing .mqd file into the new project, instead of recreating the file from scratch. A typical example is when you have a number of projects that all require quotas on the same demographic variables. As long as the demographic variables are the same in all projects, you can create the .mqd for one project, and then copy it to all the other projects' source directories. If the targets vary between projects, or you want to add extra quotas for some projects, you can edit the copied .mqd file to make these changes as you would on the original file.

The .mqd file contains several references to the project name. If you copy .mqd files between projects, edit the new file, and then change these references to point to the new project name. For example, if you copy cars.mqd into the travel source directory, you must change its name to travel.mqd, and then edit it to replace all references to cars with references to travel.

The .mqd file is a text file containing XML code, so you can edit it in any text editor. Lines in the file are very long, so it is usually best to make the replacements by using a global search and replace command. Be very careful when editing the file, because the wrong changes might make the file unusable.

You can also edit a quota by using Microsoft Excel, and then import the changed quota to another project: for more information, see Exporting and importing quota definitions.