Beyond Category version 8 introduces a change to how personnel names are stored in the database.
Previously, a first and last name was stored – very conventional. But, this simple way of handling names did not allow for proper sorting of names. Consider the following example. Entering Sammy Davis Jr. to the database required entering a last name of “Davis Jr.” Entering Walter Davis required entering a last name of “Davis”. Sorting these two names in a list, one would want to see Sammy sort before Walter but that was not happening because “Davis” will sort before “Davis Jr.”
To solve this problem, a new field, Suffix, was added to the window for adding personnel names. Now, instead of adding a name like “Davis Jr.” into the last name field, just “Davis” can be entered and the “Jr.” would be entered in the suffix. The sorting is done by last name, first name, suffix and now Walter Davis will sort after Sammy Davis Jr.
Taking advantage of this feature will require the editing of any name requiring a suffix. This can require editing of 300 names or more. To make this easier, we have the Name Suffix Converter app that will automate most of the required editing.
Using the Name Suffix Converter app
The Name Suffix Converter (NSC) app will only work on databases already converted to use Beyond Category (BC) version 8. This is done when first opening the a database with BC version 8. After the database is converted, quit the BC app and run the NSC app to open the converted database.
The Beyond Category app and the Name Suffix Converter app cannot be run simultaneously.
Once the database is opened using the NSC app,