I like BJ have all my Place names resolved so there are no tags when scrolling the place list This has another priceless advantage If you do some merging, often the places derived from the merge, are not in the same format as used in the PNA and of course they then show up as tagged being unresolved. So it is then very easy to review the Places list after a merge and instantly recognize the places that need attention. This may be to resolve them, replace with another place name (a fabulous feature in FTM), or ignore them but if you have a clear places list to start with then managing them is very easy For the record I have about 7,000 people and 1,100 places, about 6.3 to 1 John D -----Original Message----- From: ftm-tech-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:ftm-tech-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of BJ Sent: Wednesday, 16 November 2011 11:06 AM To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] Place name list, FTM 2012 I agree the ratios are not good indicators of whether the system is working. They are simply indicators of how others have resolved their Place names. I think we can all agree that a ratio of 2:1 is not the best. A ratio of 10:1 is probably also abnormal. So it gives us a range for estimating how well we have done in standardizing our Place Names. The best way that I've found is to simply start down the list of Place Names. I can give them a cursory look to see whether they are easily resolved or not. I've found a lot of duplicates in the names which tend to be easily resolved. Other types of differences include additional words and differences in spelling. Again these are easily changed. I also change the country name of United States of America to USA which is the FTM default. Other country names may also be changed to a more common and uniform name and spelling. The next big area of differences are the comments or very detailed information in the place names. This one area where using the Resolve All feature can be used as it offers tools to let you exchange the contents of two fields. Examples are Cemetery names, Hospital names, Street names. Once I see them, it is rather easy to cut and paste those types of prefixes from the Place Name Field and paste them into the description field. My goal is to standardize my Place Names; however, if I have historically accurate names especially if they are documented, then I leave them as unresolved. Good luck with your efforts. I've found it a very useful exercise. BJ

> I like BJ have all my Place names resolved so there are no tags when scrolling the place list This has another priceless advantage I am about 4,500 unresolved places from your status. My goal is to get there, and I work on it diligently. I know that I could resolve ALL, but that would be giving up, eh?