An underscore indicates a character that is unreadable. Characters enclosed in square brackets represent a single character that is one of the enclosed characters. B_[ce]ulford means a "b" followed by a character (unreadable) followed by a character that is a "c" or a "e", followed by "ulford". _{n,m} is a n to m instances of unreadable characters. The underscore can be used on its own as indicated above. Barrie > -----Original Message----- > From: ShippLF@aol.com [mailto:ShippLF@aol.com] > Sent: 25 April 2005 09:18 > To: FreeBMD-Admins-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re:Reminder of how to use _ and * etc when you > cannot read any entry > > In a message dated 24/04/2005 10:05:15 GMT Standard Time, > FreeBMD-Admins-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > > > B_(ce)ulford should be written as B_[ce]ulford > > > Have I been doing something wrong? Although I always use > square brackets, I > have never actually used an underscore to indicate where the > letter should be, > I just type the letters/numbers in the square brackets. I thought an > underscore was only used with the { } type of bracket. > > Lesley > > ______________________________ >