There are 9936 records in the database with commas in the given name field. No doubt a check could be added to WinBMD and from an ergonomic point of view this is the best place to do it. However, not all users use WinBMD and many use an old version so if this warning was going to be raised it should also be raised by the upload. Our approach to retrospective checks is to flag such problems in http://www.freebmd.org.uk/SuspectFiles.html not to make automated changes to user files. Barrie > -----Original Message----- > From: Susan & Martin Hawkins [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: 02 February 2009 01:48 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Commas in Forename field > > Hello > I have the following from one of my transcribers. Could this > be added to > the Wish list for the next version? > Thanks > Sue > > "I've just reviewed all my input to date in order to find and correct > instances where two initials were separated by a space (recent > correspondence having alerted me to the issue). > > In the course of doing that, I found a number of cases where > I'd typed a > comma instead of a full stop after an initial - they stood out in the > uploaded files I was editing because the complete first name > field was > enclosed in quotes, that being the standard for fields > containing a comma in > text files written by EXCEL. Naturally, I fixed both the > uploaded files and > my own copies. > > It left me wondering whether WinBMD might be made to check > for and raise a > warning about any comma it finds in a name field. If this is > practical, it > might save countless minor errors (I assume they don't have any wider > implications?) being propagated in future. If there is an > issue for the > integrity or accessibility of the data, I'm sure it would be > possible to > sweep the existing data files and edit them to replace commas > with full > stops in that field (which, in any case, should bring us back to TWYS > standards, because I suspect there'd be very few instances > where the scans > contained a comma in the name field).." > > Thanks > > > > Coordinator of The Recordsmiths Syndicate of volunteer > transcribers working > for FreeBMD. See http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ for details of > the project. > > >