Yes, FTM 2005/06 and 16 were all based on the original 16 bit DOS code traced back to the original FTM 2 The slash delimiter used to come up when people converted to FTM 2008 which was a totally ne rewrite and included a description field We used to get a lot of queries at the time on this list from people importing FTM 16 or earlier files into FTM 2008 where they never used the slash delimiter in these early versions (which was required when maps was introduced to FTM in version 7.0 As time and versions has moved on these queries are becoming less frequent, but occasionally it still comes up I wrote some notes at the time "To answer your question it is necessary to explain a little FTM history The Slash Delimiter "/" In version 7 through to version 11, you would have noticed in More About facts there are three fields. The event field which can be from the drop down list (from version 5 on) the date and the third, comment/location field. Note the slash separator. This now has a lot more significance. Up until version 7 I had ignored the slash believing it was only there as a grammatical delimiter between the two words similar to picture/object. As they say in the song, "It ain't necessarily so" In fact the slash now does mean something to Family Tree Maker. The version 7 manual notes it. The slash in fact does what the heading says you put in a comment then a location. Consider. This has persisted from version 7 through to version 16 but has been mainly ignored by users as most do not use the maps feature in FTM 7 through to FTM 16. The More about facts disappeared in FTM 2005 but the need for the slash remained. People who started FTM 2005/06/16 may not have been aware of its significance. If you had someone as, "buried Brighton Cemetery, Melbourne, Victoria", Family Tree Maker would interpret this as a comment. If on the other hand you had "buried Brighton Cemetery/Melbourne, Victoria", Family Tree Maker would take the first bit as a comment and the second bit after the slash as a location and use it in a map! Note the information in this example is exactly the same and will appear in reports the same but Family Tree Maker now can also use the last bit as a location and in particular for maps. The last bit is the geographic heading the first bit the comment about that person appropriate to that heading. Now when you run a map report the event that you have noted will appear in the report under Melbourne for that person. If you had left it the other way Family Tree Maker may not have interpreted it correctly and excluded it. More on Slashes If a slash "/" appears as the last character in the comment/location field, the comment will be ignored. This allows you to record the comment, but not worry about it being displayed in your map. For example, if you were to type: "I don't want this fact in my map, even though I know it took place in San Francisco, CA/" Family Tree Maker would detect the final slash character and the fact would NOT be displayed. If you have more than one slash in the comment field such as "buried at Brighton Cemetery/Melbourne/Victoria", Family Tree Maker would only use the Victoria bit as the location field. (Note the final comma in these examples are for clarity in this article and would not normally appear at the end of a comment/location.) So the slash is now a critical tool in how your data are displayed in maps! Early versions of FTM used to have some information on the subject but it has since disappeared from Help in FTM 16 Now when FTM 2008 was developed the developers decided to correct the "hack" in FTM and added the description field with is the correct place for the comment. But unless you entered your Facts and locations correctly in FTM up to version 16, i.e. Fact/ or Comment/Location when you import your information into FTM 2008 or above, you get Facts and locations mixed in the Places list You can fix these as a once off exercise using the Resolve Place Name Tool in FTM Places or individually right click on them and resolve them. It takes awhile but it is worth it as you have a proper field for descriptions and very consistent Places It took me about a weekend to fix my database with about 6,000 names and I had used the slash delimiter since version 7 for Places but not Facts. It is not worth trying to fix them in FTM 16 before importation, the tools in FTM 2008/09/10/11/12/14 Mac/2/3 are much better. So a once off but worthwhile chore" So I guess there are still some users of FTM 16 or earlier who are still converting their data and probably have never thought about the slash Fortunately FTM 2008 and above including FTM Mac/2/3 all have a proper description field available for all Facts and the data are now handled correctly Couple this with the improve hierarchitized places, you can, with a bit of effort, get things very tidy and arranged. This of course in turn makes the custom report and the FTM filter work perfectly GI GO still applies John D -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Bauman Sent: Thursday, 23 January 2014 11:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] FTM 2014 2005 is the original, DOS-based program, right? I thought the divider for comment vs. location was the slash /. With the comment listed in front of it. At least, that's what I have in the v. 16 file I still have kicking around.