Frequently Asked Questions about celebrity database editing
Version 1.0
January 19, 2001
The latest version of this FAQ can always be found at the home site: Latest FAQ
Index:
What is a "Misspelled duplicate" entry? How can I avoid them? How do I correct existing ones?
What exactly is an "Alias" entry? What is it used for? How do I recognize one?
What is the "No Auto-Select" flag? When should I use it?
The "First, Middle, Last" names and "Folder Name" are kept separate to allow for aliases.
Type the same name into both the "First Name" and "Last Name" fields and click on the [Auto Folder] button. Note that the "Folder Name" will contain the name twice e.g. "Madonna Madonna". This stutter is normal and required to obey the folder naming convention used throughout AutoSort.
What is a "Misspelled duplicate" entry? How can I avoid them? How do I correct existing ones?
A misspelled duplicate entry is a celebrity name which is wrongfully added to the database while it contains another properly spelled entry that represents the same celebrity, or vice versa. These type of duplicates occur quite often and are highly detrimental to AutoSort's accuracy and usefulness.
Every possible effort should be made to prevent these duplicates from being added to the database in the first place, and to correct existing cases as you find them.
Before you add a new celebrity to the database, use the "Find" window to locate celebrities with highly similar names. Future versions of the program will do this for you but in the mean time, you need to do it manually. If you find a celebrity name which seems to conflict with the one you're adding, handle it as follows:
If you think the existing entry is misspelled, edit and modify the *existing* celebrity to reflect proper spelling. Avoid deleting the existing misspelled entry and adding a replacement entry, this causes a lot of confusion for the author when you send in your User.cdb for integration with the distributed database.
If, after finding an existing entry, you believe the name you wanted to add is misspelled, consider making this misspelled version an alias of the properly spelled celebrity, especially if you think other people might often misspell the same name in the same way. This will allow AutoSort to recognize the misspelled celebrity name during identification sessions and sort the misspelled files to the proper folder. This will also prevent other people from adding that misspelled celebrity name to the database by mistake. See "Aliases" for an example of how a misspelled alias entry can be used to improve the database.
In any event, when you find misspelled duplicates, the relevant entries can easily be turned into aliases of the properly spelled celebrity simply by copying the proper "Folder Name" with Ctrl-C and pasting it to all misspelled entries with Ctrl-V. Leave the "First, Middle, Last" name fields as is.
If you think a misspelled entry is terribly wrong and people aren't likely to misspell the celebrity name that way, don't bother turning it into an alias of the properly spelled entry, just delete it.
What exactly is an "Alias" entry? What is it used for? How do I recognize one?
The word "Alias" means "Also known as". In AutoSort, alias entries are used ensure that files related to the same celebrity will end up sorted to the same folder, regardless of what alias name was used in the file name.
For the most part, an alias entry looks just like any other celebrity entry except that the information contained in the "Folder Name" field is different than the combined "First, Middle, Last" name fields.
To turn an existing entry into an alias of another celebrity, just change it's "Folder Name" so it becomes identical to the "Folder Name" of the other entry.
For example, the popular model "Adriana Sklenarikova" got married and now goes by the name of "Adriana Karembeu". The celebrity database now contains two entries related to that model, one as "Adriana Sklenarikova" and one as "Adriana Karembeu". However, both entries have the "Folder Name" set to "Adriana Karembeu". This means that all files positively identified as either "Adriana Sklenarikova" or "Adriana Karembeu" will end up sorted to the "Adriana Karembeu" folder. It doesn't really matter which of the two names you pick as the destination folder but generally, you should use the name she is most often referred as. The important thing is that the files should all go to the same folder.
Another more advanced example: "Sarah Michelle Gellar" is often referred to and well know as "Buffy the vampire slayer". "Buffy" was added to the database as a single name celebrity which uses "Sarah Michelle Gellar" as the destination folder, this effectively makes "Buffy" an alias of "Sarah Michelle Gellar".
Alias entries are also used to allow AutoSort to recognize often misspelled celebrity names. For example, the database contains an alias of "Courteney Cox" spelled as "Courtney Cox"
Another use accounts for convivial nicknames. For example, the database contains an alias of "Deborah Corrigan" as "Debbie Corrigan"
What is the "No Auto-Select" flag? When should I use it?
This flag is used to prevent AutoSort from Auto-Selecting (putting a red check mark on) a given celebrity during file identification sessions.
Some celebrities have names which are by nature very problematic to AutoSort and can lead to files being wrongfully identified and sorted to the wrong folder. If you find that a database entry causes unrelated celebrities to be sent to it's folder, set it's [No Auto-Select] flag.
A good example of a [No Auto-Select] candidate is "Tina Lee" because both the first and last names are often found within other names:
"tina" can be found in "Christina", "Constantina", "Valentina", ...
"lee" can be found in "Carlee", "Cathleen", "Colleen", "Bleeth" ...
The "Tina Lee" entry would cause a file named "Christina_Bleeth_001a.jpg" to be identified and automatically selected as "Tina Lee" if no entry for "Christina Bleeth" exists in the database.
When you hit "OK" after editing a celebrity, AutoSort runs your entry through the database to see if it is potentially dangerous and will recommend you to set or clear the flag as appropriate. In all but the most special cases, you should set the flag as recommended by AutoSort. You do however have the final word.