Hints for Merging Files (Simon Orde)
Posted: 13 Jul 2004 17:59
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In general it is never a good idea to simply trust the program to get it right when merging data. That applies to all programs, not just F.H. You are definitely advised to do some checking before accepting F.H.'s proposed merge plans (as displayed in the Merge/Compare dialog). I always recommend users to look carefully at the 'Score' column (i.e. the match score) which tells you how confident F.H. is that a match (between records in the 2 files) has been found: high numbers (e.g. over 100) indicates a high level of confidence; low numbers (e.g. under 50) indicates a low level of confidence. So look at the low-scored matches. You can easily find all the low-scoring values by clicking on the 'Score' column heading to sort the whole list by score.
If you want to merge 2 files where you are confident that there is no overlap (no matching records) between the 2 files, you need to unmatch all records (of all types) in the Merge/Compare dialog, before clicking on Merge. To do this, you need to force F.H. to unmatch any records that it has wrongly matched. The quick and easy way of doing this is to select every row in the left-hand pane and click on the unmatch button. To select every record, simply click on the first row, scroll down to the end of the list and then press-hold the shift key, and while keeping it pressed, click on the last row in the list (still in the leftmost pane). That will select the whole list. Now click on the Unmatch button.
The reason that I recommend you select the rows in the leftmost list is because it supports multiple selection, and the centre and right panes don't.
Remember to do the above for all record types being merged. Click on each tab in the merge compare/dialog and repeat the above (unless you can see at a glance that F.H. hasn't matched any records of that type anyway). There will be one for each record type that is used in either or both files (e.g. Individuals, Families, Notes, etc). If there is no tab for 'Sources', say, this just means that there are no source records in either file.
When all records have been unmatched, click on the 'Merge' button and F.H. will merge the file, but without merging any records.
Other tips:
(1) Click on Help in the Merge/Compare Dialog. Lot more info about it in the Online Help.
(2) Take a backup (or at least make a copy of your file on your hard disk) before doing a merge in case something goes wrong and you want to revert to the original version.
Simon Orde
List Administrator
In general it is never a good idea to simply trust the program to get it right when merging data. That applies to all programs, not just F.H. You are definitely advised to do some checking before accepting F.H.'s proposed merge plans (as displayed in the Merge/Compare dialog). I always recommend users to look carefully at the 'Score' column (i.e. the match score) which tells you how confident F.H. is that a match (between records in the 2 files) has been found: high numbers (e.g. over 100) indicates a high level of confidence; low numbers (e.g. under 50) indicates a low level of confidence. So look at the low-scored matches. You can easily find all the low-scoring values by clicking on the 'Score' column heading to sort the whole list by score.
If you want to merge 2 files where you are confident that there is no overlap (no matching records) between the 2 files, you need to unmatch all records (of all types) in the Merge/Compare dialog, before clicking on Merge. To do this, you need to force F.H. to unmatch any records that it has wrongly matched. The quick and easy way of doing this is to select every row in the left-hand pane and click on the unmatch button. To select every record, simply click on the first row, scroll down to the end of the list and then press-hold the shift key, and while keeping it pressed, click on the last row in the list (still in the leftmost pane). That will select the whole list. Now click on the Unmatch button.
The reason that I recommend you select the rows in the leftmost list is because it supports multiple selection, and the centre and right panes don't.
Remember to do the above for all record types being merged. Click on each tab in the merge compare/dialog and repeat the above (unless you can see at a glance that F.H. hasn't matched any records of that type anyway). There will be one for each record type that is used in either or both files (e.g. Individuals, Families, Notes, etc). If there is no tab for 'Sources', say, this just means that there are no source records in either file.
When all records have been unmatched, click on the 'Merge' button and F.H. will merge the file, but without merging any records.
Other tips:
(1) Click on Help in the Merge/Compare Dialog. Lot more info about it in the Online Help.
(2) Take a backup (or at least make a copy of your file on your hard disk) before doing a merge in case something goes wrong and you want to revert to the original version.
Simon Orde
List Administrator