I know I have done this in the past but seem to have forgotten how. I have a small database with 1000 pictures, many of them are repeated and I want to mark those to keep and those to trash with a check box, archive and keep, How do I do this?

I'm not sure I understand the question. If you want to automatically detect which pictures are duplicates, I don't think you can unless you have some field which uniquely names each picture. The duplicate detection would based upon name, not the contents of the container field holding the picture.

The technique would be to perform a duplicate find ("!" in the picture name field), sort by picture name, and loop through the records marking the first occurrence of each name.

-bd

I will not need to automatically detect wich picture are dupes. I just need to note for my reference which is the picture I want to keep and which is the one I need to trash. So, all I need is a field with two choices, one to keep the other to trash.

No.You only want one choice.

Make a value list with the single item "Trash". Make a field in your database called Trash. Put the field on your layout and format it as a checkbox using the value list defined above. You'll now have a single option to either check or uncheck.

Go through your records and check the ones you want to trash. Then perform a find for "trash" in the Trash field. Delete the found set.

Easy-peasy.

You could do it the reverse too. Make the value list "Keep" and check the records you want to *keep* in the database. Your find will now be for those records which are *empty* in the field. Empty records are found by searching for "==" without the quotes.

If you're doing this on a random/occasional basis, you might want both options (keep and trash) so that you remember which records you've checked. Just put both of those in the value list, then format the field as radio buttons or a popup menu. It's a good idea to make sure this field starts out empty in all records (eg: a new field) unless the contents exactly match the new value list.

The problem with this is that records now have three states: Keep, Trash and <empty>. How do you handle empty? If your users are like mine, most will be <empty>.

If you want to go with two choices, auto-enter one of them into the field when a new record is made.

My reasoning is that "Keep" means I have looked at it and I want to keep it. "Trash" means I have looked at it and I want to trash it. And <empty> means I haven't looked at it... I'll have to get around to it one day.

Whether this works for you depends totally on your situation, and the methodology you use to go through the records.

As an interface I think you can have the same result with just a single "Trash" option.

Logically, Keep = not Trash so one of them is redundant. <empty> also means keep (since you you don't want to trash them) so it too is redundant.

I like keeping things a simple as possible.

Thanks all, I got it to work