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╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Review of NE4PAF - From File NE4PAF.REV ║
╟──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╢
║ PAF Review - Edition 93.3 - May 1993 ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
NE4PAF is a name editor for PAF, automatically correcting common
capitalization errors and allowing mass changes from one spelling
to another, including the combining of multiple spellings.
In my testing, the many name problems in my files surprised me.
Many problems were easy to see in NE4PAF's name index. For
example, two spellings of Harlingen Texas were right next to each
other. About twenty minutes with my gazetteer cleared these types
of problems up. The most difficult challenge for me was selecting
certain name entry standards that I didn't even realize I needed!
The entire session took about an hour on my file of about five
thousand individuals.
You should be aware that if you change a name, this will change
every occurrence in your files. This may not always be what you
want to do. For example, assume that you have entered "LA" in
the Temple Code Field for Los Angeles. Assume that you also used
"LA"as an abbreviation for Los Angeles county in your place
fields. If you want to change the Temple Code Fields from LA to
LANGE (the new church standard) and the place fields from LA to
Los Angeles, NE4PAF cannot do this for you. The author is
considering ways to allow this differentiation in a future
version.
I encountered only one problem I consider a bug in version five.
Since my name file was large, I had to use the slower "B" version.
After completing my work and exiting, FRCHK found errors in the
name tree. They were easily corrected using FRCHK's "-F" option,
but FRCHK reported a much greater tree depth after the correction.
Since I had combined quite a few names, I eliminated all names
with a count of zero using Frank Chandler's NAMCLEAN program. You
can also delete these names with NE4PAF but must find each of them
and delete one at a time.
These deletions reduced the name file size so I made another run
using the "A" version of the program. I didn't notice any speed
difference between the two versions until the program was
rebuilding the name file. For this process the "A" version was
much faster. Best of all, when I completed this time, FRCHK found
no errors. I have reported this anomaly to the author.
There is one part of the process that might bother some. If you
have any names that don't match the automatic capitalization
rules, you must correct them yourself each time you run NE4PAF.
This won't take much time for most of us, if we just keep track.
It would be helpful if the program would keep track of our
exceptions, so we wouldn't have to do so manually.
In all, I found this to be a very useful utility that most PAF
users could profitably use several times a year. I've also found
the author to be very responsive to suggestions from users and he
seems committed to improvements in function and speed.