Sorry, I had to edit a couple of errors in that previous instruction. Here is a cleaner version. ---------------------- When I clean up my Master Location List, I do the following:
1) click "Sort" and move one of the "Sorted order" fields up or down so the sort order will be different (doesn't matter because we will sort it back to normal after). This is important if you have more than the one required blank location at the top of the list. The extra blank locations are caused by a flaw in LegacyFS when it pulls locations from nFS. Click "OK" to execute the new sort order. 2) click "Sort" again and change the "Sorted order" fields back to the sequence you prefer. There should be only one blank location at the top of the table after this sort. If you "Show List" on this blank location it will tell you that "it is used by Legacy as a blank record." 3) click "Options" then "Expand/Contract Location Parts" a) check all the "Parts to Work On" boxes b) check the "Remove USA and United States" box (you can put them back later if you prefer but for now it will aid in matching up duplicate locations) c) set the radio button "All Locations in List" under "Records to Change" (unless you prefer another choice) d) click "Continue" and wait for the table to be modified 4) click "Options" then "Combine Duplicates" and then "Yes" to automatically combine all the duplicate locations in the table then wait for it to finish. If there were duplicates, it will report how many were combined. 5) click "Options" then "Purge Unused" and then "Yes" to remove the locations which are not linked to any records in the database. If locations were purged, a report is produced and you can view it if you wish. 6) Now that the above functions have cleaned up quite a few things in the locations table, I am ready to use "Search and Replace" on the table to fix erroneous abbreviations, mis-spellings, etc. The search and replace works much like a word processor except only on the "Find where" field in the database. Examples follow (quote marks are used to show included spaces - do not include the quote marks in your find or replace fields): Find what Replacement text How to Find " Mass." " Massachusetts" Anywhere in field " Mass" " Massachusetts" Ends with " Conn." " Connecticut" Anywhere in field " Conn" " Connecticut" Ends with " Co.," " County," Anywhere in field " Co," " County," Anywhere in field Notice the space before the Co. and the comma after the Co are important in the "Find what" string and the same space and comma are important in the "Replacement text" string. Observe that the period in " Mass." makes the string unique enough to be found anywhere in the field. Without the period in " Mass" you should only replace at the end of the field otherwise you could change Massachusetts to Massachusettsachusetts which would not be very desirable so that replacement is limited to the end of field only. Also be sure to always set the radio button in How to Replace to "Replace only found text with replacement text" otherwise everything that was in the field will be gone and just the replacement text will remain. Once all the Search and Replace modifications have been made, run steps 4 and 5 again to combine newly formed duplicates resulting from your editing. 7) One last tip. Check the box at the bottom of the search and replace window called "Come back to this screen after the Search and Replace". This causes the program to stay in the Search and Replace tool until you are finished with all your searches. You can even use the search and replace to simply locate information in any field of the database and then either "Skip" to bypass the replacement or make the Replacement text the same as the Find what field so that even if you accidentally click "Replace" there would be no change. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Find where field for the long location name in the Master Location List is "Lists-Location" and the short location name is Lists-Location Short. You can just as easily use the Search and Replace tool on any of the fields in the database. Ron Taylor Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
