Just for consideration, I wanted to offer a clarification to part of
Carl's reply...

Certainly, I agree that you shouldn't change the names of EXISTING Ebase
fields.  But if the existing Ebase contact fields don't correctly describe
the information you need to maintain, I think it can make a lot of sense
to create NEW fields which more clearly label the information that your
organization wants to track... In that case, the "contact flag" check box
labels that you change should be evocative of any NEWLY CREATED field that
they display.

It can sometimes become pretty confusing when a field on a layout is
labelled "fax broadcast" and the field it is actually connected to is
named "contact phone".  This leads to a circumstance where a field's name
actually doesn't indicate the information contents correctly.  I feel that
one of the highest priority rules for data management is "use evocative
labels for field/database names".  In the long run, it can be a big help
when the name is actually evocative of the information contents. Database
work often becomes very difficult when field names don't actually reflect
data contents of those fields...

Although this "clarity of labelling" issue may seem obvious, I've found
poor field/file names to be one of the most pervasive data management
problems. And the consequences can be significant in terms of the
increased expense and trouble for maintenance of your data...


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