New Place Editing Script

[John Nairn, Developer]

I just posted a new script called "Move Part of Place to Address" on geditcom.com (although the easier way to get it is to choose Utilites -> Download Script from the scripts menu and choose the new one in the "Editing Tools" section when the list of available scripts appears. You can save to system or user scripts at your preference. This script will be included in version 1.7 build 2, but it is fully compatible with the current 1.7 and therefore can be used now if you want.

What it does:

While using the new place features with my own files, I found it better to have all address details in address fields and keep the place names to higher level names such as town names. The process of getting an address out of a place name is a bit tedious. I wrote this script to make that process much easier. To use it:

1. Open a place record with an address in its name (or select one or more place records with addresses in the index window).

2. Choose this new script from the scripts menu

3. You will see the entire place name. Delete the address parts leaving just the town level name remaining. You leave just the text you want to be the new place name after the address is removed.

4. The text you deleted will be moved to address fields for each person or family that references that place (don't worry about extra spaces or commas in the deleted text - it will be cleaned up for you) and the place record will change to the new name.

5. If the new places matches another place already in the file, you will have the option to merge those two places. It is probably always the right decision to merge (but you can also go back later and manually merge them).

6. If you selected multiple place records in the index window, the script will process each one in order.

7. A single undo can revert everything after the script is done if you need to.

Hope this helps for a few who have asked. Version 1.7, build 2 will have more help on places and mapping features that work best when places in your file have been cleaned up.

John