Ah Ahh The +PAGE problemo can be got round by selecting all the columns as text, that option comes up in the final "open" window (I'm running Excel in Office circa 2001). I use EditPadLite (a freebie recommended to me by Philip Powell, overlooking the Derwent Valley). That can easily get rid of the unwanted trailing commas and also replace your ",.," to ".,". It also can do many files in one hit (but be careful that it starts at the beginning for each edit process). Not that I endorse the ethos of bulk full-stop adding, suppose one name didn't have the dreaded full stop (no correspondence please on that subject). cheers Bob Phillips ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Tinkler" <ktinkler@spartan.ac.brocku.ca> To: <FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 4:01 PM Subject: Re: More on adding fullstops painlessly > Ahh > > Well I only had that problem with the lines with +PAGE and its number which > is not much of a problem. I'm on Excel 98 (on a Mac). Can you save selected > columns only maybe? > > Ahh but then I see your comment on the header. I only added that when I got > it into the text file. > > Keith > > > From: "Bob Phillips" <robert.ph@ntlworld.com> > > Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 20:32:57 +0100 > > To: FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L@rootsweb.com > > Subject: Re: More on adding fullstops painlessly > > Resent-From: FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L@rootsweb.com > > Resent-Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 13:32:47 -0600 > > > > Hi Keith > > When I tried a similar exercise using Excel (on a PC) I found I had > > loads of unwanted trailing commas. > > (each line had equal number of fields equalling the longest line in the > > header) > > I had to get rid of them with a slightly awkward find and replace. > > cheers > > Bob Phillips > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Keith Tinkler" <ktinkler@spartan.ac.brocku.ca> > > To: <FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L@rootsweb.com> > > Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 6:26 PM > > Subject: More on adding fullstops painlessly > > > > > >> This wont help most of you - but for 1884 deaths I prefer using Excel > >> > >> After the forenames column I have a column of periods. > >> > >> When the whole is saved to a Comma Separated File (text) I have the > >> following in my word processor (SimpleText on a Mac) > >> > >> SURNAME,forename,.23,etc .... [23 is the age at death] > >> > >> After which a global change changes ,. to ., > >> > >> Proof reading should catch any entries where the concluding period really > > is > >> missing > >> > >> Keith > >> > >> > >> ============================== > >> To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, > > go to: > >> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >> > > > > > > --- > > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > > Version: 6.0.515 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 01/09/2003 > > > > > > ============================== > > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go > > to: > > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.515 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 01/09/2003