Am porting a set of FMP5 files to FMP9.

6,782 field names need to be converted to standard format (e.g., remove $ chars, leading numerics, etc.) I have all the fields in an Excel SS and am planning on cutting & pasting NewName over OldName, but it will be horribly tedious. Is there a third party application that will run on Filemaker 6, 7, 8 or 9 that can make this task bearable?

You could simply open the Excel file in FileMaker. This will give you the option to convert the first row of the spreadsheet to field names.

It might also be possible to do what you want with Clip Manager.

If nothing else, you could probably make this happen with a macro utility such as iKey.

6,782 field names need to be converted to standard format

But your next base will hopefully be, considerably less flatly designed?

--sd

THANK YOU!

I could not get the iKey program to work, as it "blew up" when I told it to run a script, but your suggestion gave me the idea to try QuicKeys (After I googled twenty times to remember the name). I downloaded the 30 day free trial and in less than 10 minutes have a script running that does one complete loop from Excel to FMP, using the F3 key -- such a simple blessing!. Now I just have to work up the courage to let it loop automatically!

It would be nice, but the solution runs everything from inventory to press schedules to time sheets, for three large printing facilities, with full historical archiving. The current number of fields is unlikely to be reduced, however the number of files will be, as some of the related FP5 tables will (someday) be combined into single FP9 files.

Can't you sue the developer for bad conduct of his trade, and then hire a better one for the revenue gained by the process??

No - Seriously do I mean that an ongoing process where, you normalize bit by bit is the best solution to your problem, the excess number of field doesn't need to get renamed, but instead made to evaporate into thin air ...all fields where a pre/postfix'ed number have found it's way into the naming "convention" ...are likely candidates for this process.

--sd