James Holcombe wrote: > What is the purpose of this function? From TMG HELP: You can change the fields that will be included in the default Short Place. A Short Place is an additional way of referring to places. It does not include all of the place fields and is used primarily in charts and other places where the entire set of place fields will not fit. The default is [CITY], [COUNTY], [STATE]. On the Master Place List you can assign a Short Place to a specific place record, overriding the default specified here. In addition to charts, many reports have an option to use the Short Place template when printing place fields. > Will it reduce the full place name in circumstances > when the same place is used for BMDB? No. You specify the Places Report Option whether this report will use the Short Place field for *all* places reported. The option to "Group common birth places" is a separate Miscellaneous option on some reports. But that Place will output using the format chosen for all Places. Michael