--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Baptism Number Format --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every parish writes its baptism numbers in its own way, and many parishes changed the way over the years. BAPTISM NUMBER FORMAT tells the programme how YOUR parish writes them, period by period. The programme then reads every number correctly: when it sorts the baptism book, looks for duplicates, links the baptism book with the church records, prints the book of one year, and when it warns you about a number on the baptism entry form. You find it under CONTROL PANEL -> CLEAN BAPTISM BOOK -> BAPTISM NUMBER FORMAT. The ? button beside it opens this text. The four layouts: any format 12/2005, 2005-12, 4711 ... (kept as written) number, sign, year 12/2005 (or 12/05) year, sign, number 2005/12 (or 05/12) number only, no year 4711 (numbers counted on across the years) The sign between number and year can be any of / \ - . : - the programme reads all of them in every layout. A letter after the number (12A/2005, 12 b/2005) is part of the number. "Any format" is the default: without a format of your own, the programme reads every number as well as it can (number/year, year/number or a plain number) and never rewrites one. Nothing is "not in the format", so the red flag only warns about a year that does not match the baptism date and about a number used twice. Choose one of the other layouts when your parish writes its numbers in one fixed way and you want the book brought into it. =========================================================================== PART ONE: SETTING UP THE FORMAT, STEP BY STEP =========================================================================== 1. Open CONTROL PANEL -> CLEAN BAPTISM BOOK -> BAPTISM NUMBER FORMAT. The list at the top shows one line per period of baptism years: the period, the format, and an example of how number 12 looks in it. 2. Click a line in the list. Its settings appear under "The selected line": Baptisms from (year) ... to (year) the period. Leave a box empty for "from the beginning" or "up to now and later". Layout any format / number, sign, year / year, sign, number / number only Year 4 digits (2005) or 2 digits (05) - see PART THREE sign the sign WRITTEN when numbers are brought into the format (all signs are read anyway) number "as written", or always 2, 3 or 4 digits (05, 005, 0005) With "any format", Year, sign and number do not apply and are greyed. The example under the settings changes as you choose. 3. If your parish always wrote its numbers the same way, change the one line and press CHANGE THE SELECTED LINE. 4. If the way of writing changed over the years, make one line per period: - select the line, set its years (for example from empty to 1989) and its format, press CHANGE THE SELECTED LINE; - set the years and the format of the next period (for example 1990 to empty) and press ADD AS A NEW LINE; - repeat for every period. DELETE THE SELECTED LINE removes a line (the last one cannot be deleted - change it instead). The list keeps the lines in the order of their first year. Periods must not overlap: ADD and CHANGE refuse a line that overlaps another one. Leave no gap between the periods. In a year that no line covers, nothing is ever converted, and a two-digit year there can only be read with the help of the baptism date. 5. Try it. Type a number into "Try a number" (and, if you like, the year of the baptism). The line below tries it under the lines as they now stand in the window, saved or not, and says one of these: Read as number 3 of 1989. In the format: 3/1989 Read as number 3 of 1989. Already in the format. ... Not in the layout of its period: it would be left as it is. Cannot be read under these lines. (PART TWO explains the last two.) 6. Press CHECK THE BOOK. Nothing is changed. It uses the lines as they stand in the window, saved or not. You are told how many numbers are already in the format, how many would change, how many can be read but are not in the layout of their period, and how many cannot be read. You can open the list of them. 7. Press SAVE. The lines are stored in this datafile and the window closes. SAVE changes no baptism number: it only tells the programme how to read them. (The baptism-number order of the book is updated at the same moment.) CANCEL closes the window without storing the lines; if you changed lines, you are asked first. An example. A parish wrote 12/85 until 1989, then 1995-007 (year first, three-digit number) until 2014, and has used running numbers since 2015: Period Layout Year sign number until 1989 number, sign, year 2 digits / as written 1990-2014 year, sign, number 4 digits - 3 digits from 2015 number only, no year - - as written =========================================================================== PART TWO: BRINGING THE BOOK INTO THE FORMAT =========================================================================== BRING THE BOOK INTO THIS FORMAT rewrites every number that can be read in the format of its period. In a number/year period with four digits and the sign /, for example: 12-2005 becomes 12/2005 (another sign) 12/05 becomes 12/2005 (two-digit year) 2005/12 becomes 12/2005 (year and number the wrong way round) 12 a/2005 becomes 12A/2005 (the letter belongs to the number) and with "number: 3 digits" 12/2005 becomes 012/2005. (This replaces the former button CHANGE no/YY TO no/YYYY.) Two kinds of numbers stay as they are: Numbers that cannot be read a typing error (6o instead of 60), two signs (40/12/2025), a year with three digits (33/125), or a number without a year in a period whose line has a year in the number (in a number/year period, 15 alone cannot be read: the programme never guesses the year). Numbers that can be read, but are "not in the layout of their period" a number WITH a year in a period of running numbers ("number only"), or a number with a year that no line covers. A number with a year and a running number mean different things, so the programme never turns one into the other. Note: a number that has its year, but in the wrong place or with another sign, is NOT "not in the layout": it is simply rewritten, as 2005/12 above. In an "any format" period nothing is rewritten: every number that can be read counts as already in the format. How it goes: - If the lines were changed and not saved yet, you are asked to save them first. BRING THE BOOK always works with the saved lines. - You are told how many numbers will change before anything happens, and how many stay as they are. - An open baptism book window is closed first. - These are real corrections of the entries: they are logged, and they reach the team with the next sync. A list of every change is written to the Logs folder. - The numbers that stay as they are are listed by CHECK THE BOOK, so you can correct them by hand. Two settings at the bottom of the window belong to this: write every year with four digits (recommended) Ticked: every year is written with four digits, also in a period whose line says "2 digits". Unticked: those periods keep two. It is ticked again every time the window opens. Two-digit years up to [..] The switch year. A two-digit year up to this number is read as 20.., a later one as 19.. - but only where neither the lines nor the baptism date decide the century. Leave it at the current year unless your computer clock is wrong. A change holds until the programme is closed, and meanwhile counts for every reading of a number (the red flag, the search, the order of the book), not only here. At the next start it is the current year again. RESORT BAPTISM BOOK -> SORT BY BAPTISM NUMBER also brings the numbers into the format first, with the saved lines and always with four-digit years. =========================================================================== PART THREE: TWO-DIGIT YEARS =========================================================================== Two-digit years are possible, but discouraged: 12/05 can mean 1905 or 2005, and the programme then has to guess from the lines, the baptism date and the switch year. Use "2 digits" only for an old register that was written that way. - Choosing 2 digits for a line shows a red note, and ADD / CHANGE ask you to confirm. - When the book is brought into the format, these years are still written with four digits as long as "write every year with four digits" is ticked. - On the baptism entry form, a number like 12/85 gets the red flag with "Two-digit years are discouraged: better write 12/1985." =========================================================================== PART FOUR: WHAT THE FORMAT IS USED FOR =========================================================================== The red flag on the baptism entry form A red ! beside the baptism number shows that something is wrong with it. Point at it to read why, click it for the whole explanation. It is a warning only - nothing is blocked. It appears when - the number cannot be read under the format (not in an "any format" period), - it is not in the layout of its period (see PART TWO), - it would be written differently in the format (12-2005 -> 12/2005), - the year in the number is not the year of the baptism date, - another entry has the same number, in any spelling. It follows the number and the baptism date as you type them. The order of the book RESORT BAPTISM BOOK -> SORT BY BAPTISM NUMBER sorts year by year, and by number within a year (05/2025 before 01/2026, 12/2026 before 12A/2026). Running numbers ("number only") stay together in their period. Numbers that cannot be read stand at the beginning or at the end, as you choose there. The same number in any spelling 12/2005, 12-2005, 12.2005 and 12/05 are the same number for: - CONFIRM on a new baptism entry (a number that already exists is refused), - BAPTISM BOOK DUPLICATES and the church records duplicate check, - the search by baptism number (in the baptism book and in the main search), - phone entries and sync, which warn about a number already used. Linking the baptism book with the church records LINK BAPTISM BOOK TO CHURCH RECORDS matches the numbers as read, so a card that says 12/05 is linked with the book entry 12/2005, and an existing link is no longer broken because the two are spelled differently. The baptism book PDF of one year "Take year from Bapt No" reads the year from the number in any layout (a number without a year: from its baptism date); "Take year from Bapt Date" reads the date in any date format. The church records CLEAN CHURCH RECORDS -> BAPT NO: BRING NUMBERS INTO THE SET FORMAT uses the same saved lines for the baptism numbers on the cards, with four-digit years, and the switch year in the box beside it. Keep "only change for baptisms in own Parish" ticked: it limits the change to cards whose baptism parish is empty or contains the name of this parish, because other parishes may write their numbers differently. =========================================================================== PART FIVE: GOOD TO KNOW =========================================================================== - The format belongs to the datafile. It reaches the server with the next security copy, and a computer receives it when it takes the parish data from the server. - How a number is read: a number with a sign is tried both ways round (number/year and year/number), and the reading that fits best wins: first the baptism date, then the layout of the line for that year, then its number of year digits. - A number without a sign is a running number. It belongs to the "number only" or "any format" period of its baptism year; without a baptism date it can be read only when there is exactly one "number only" period (or, failing that, exactly one "any format" period). In a year whose line has a year in the number, it cannot be read. - A year that looks like a number ("2005/12") is read as number 12 of 2005, never as number 2005 of 2012, unless the baptism date says 2012. - Numbers that cannot be read, and numbers not in the layout of their period, are listed by CHECK THE BOOK (see PART TWO for the causes).