* Updating Place names

[susanpenter]

Throughout all the decades I have been gathering my data I have always used the place data as Town/Village, County or town/village, County, Country if outside of England. I have now come to the conclusion that it will be much easier managing the data if I was to include England into all the English places. Is there any way I can do this other than manually going through every place name because I fear this may take weeks if not months to do.

Thanks in advance for any ideas,

Susan

[tatewise]

It is probably not as bad as it first appears.
BUT do make a Backup of the Project before you start, just in case!!!

The basic approach would be to use Tools > Work With Data > Places or the Records Window > Places tab Property Box.
Then edit each Place name globally by clicking on the [...] button to the right of the Place field.

If you have lots of Place names in the same County then try using the Search and Replace Plugin.
See its Help & Advice > Usage Examples > Place Name Changes in FH V6 > Global Change Example.
i.e.
Search Scope: Place Records (_PLAC)
Basic Filters: Place fields only
I suggest you select LUA Pattern Mode top right, so the $ symbol in Search anchors the County to end of Place field.
Search for something like , Kent$ and Replace with , Kent, England.
Note that if the results are unsatisfactory, then use Edit > Undo Plugin Updates straight away.

[Gowermick]

Susan,
I don't know if this is the best way, but you could use find and replace, to add , England to each county name, this will only need 40 find and replaces at most (there are 40 old counties)
E.g. find Essex and replace with Essex, England.
This of course assume you have standardised the names of your Counties, and none already contain , England!

If this is the case, you'll end up with place containing , England, England, but after you have done all the counties, all you'll need to do is find , England, England and replace with , England

[tatewise]

Susan, (I'm sorry Mike) BUT DO NOT USE THAT METHOD.

It will create brand new empty Place records and leave behind a lot of unlinked Place records with your Lat/Longitude, Notes and Media attached.

In addition to the problem Mike mentions, it will also replace Essex (and other county names) anywhere else in any Place names. Whereas the Plugin approach (which is similar) ensures the county name must be last.

[Gowermick]

Thanks Mike,
I did say it may not be the best way

[susanpenter]

Many thanks, Mike,

I used the plugin as you suggested and it worked perfectly.

Unfortunately, it took me a while to see your reply - stupid seasonal bugs etc.

Thanks again,

Susan