Smart Casing

[pabney]

I have a customer that is demanding we get some kind of software to fix the casing in their database. I don't think it is about the names as much as it is about things like LLC or III, things like that. They mentioned something called DataLift, but I can not find any information on this software.
If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
Paul

 

[MailGuru]

Hey Pabney,

I don't think there is any commercially available software, that I know of, that will do this. I did write my own homegrown program, but, it's only about 60% accurate. Basically, you have to have a database of "key words", and, what you want them changed to. "(space)Llc(space)" to "(space)LLC(space), "Aaa" to "AAA", "Ibm" to "IBM", Jlb Lawn Svc" to "JLB Lawn Svc.,etc.

Problem is no matter how many key words you come up with, there will always be some that gets missed. After you run the program, you have to browse the file, then add the ones it missed to your key word database.

After a couple of years, I finally abandoned the whole dang thing, and, convinced the client that, if you want it done right, with 100% accuracy, then, the company names (along with the mailing addresses) need to be all in upper case (which, is what the USPS really wants anyway). He finally agreed, and, for the last several years, we've had no problems.

Hope this helps!

-MailGuru

 

[OffsetStorefront]

I have a customer that is demanding we get some kind of software to fix the casing in their database. I don't think it is about the names as much as it is about things like LLC or III, things like that. They mentioned something called DataLift, but I can not find any information on this software.
If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks
Paul

A customer demanding that you fix the data in their database...hmm...

 

[pabney]

MailGuru,
Thanks for the info, unfortunately we are dealing with the contents of the envelope. I to think that this is a pipe dream. This will turn out to be a manual fix.

OffsetSorefront, I chose my words poorly. They want us to fix the data supplied to us from their database, not their actual database.

 

[OffsetStorefront]

Still, it's their data being supplied to you. If they're wanting you to adjust the casing on all those custom words I'd suggest you charge for the manual time involved. Like MailGuru was saying, there is likely no set "pattern" a piece of software can follow to know what to capitalize and what not to besides just using a huge list of words that count and words that don't. The face that they spent a couple years building up the list without it being good enough to continue to use says a lot about the scope of the task...

 

[MailGuru]

To make matters worse, if the data base is a mixture of individual names as well as businesses, it can get pretty difficult.

For instance:

Charles Dodge (it can be an individual's name, or, a business)
Tom Jones Ford (individual, or, business)?
Mac Papers (business, or person's name)?

 

[PrintIT]

To make matters worse, if the data base is a mixture of individual names as well as businesses, it can get pretty difficult.

For instance:

Charles Dodge (it can be an individual's name, or, a business)
Tom Jones Ford (individual, or, business)?
Mac Papers (business, or person's name)?

I don't think that necessarily applies to this situation though. The first letter is always going to be capped in these cases, and that can be fixed with a regular old Excel Propercase function. It's those pesky suffixes like LLC that need to stay all caps while the rest of the field is Proper case. We've struggled with the same thing many times over the years and it's always turned into a find & replace job, with someone manually going through the list.

 

[bill kahny]

I think BCC's Mail Manager software does a good job and they allow the user to edit the tables for specific words.

 

[Paul J Gardner]

No matter the tool you chose, it’s going to be a learning process for you and the software. A script in Word or Google Docs can be taught to handle most of the transformations you’re likely to need. And an automation tool like IFTT or Zapier can help make it easier and faster. This from Zapier’s blog might help point you towards something you haven’t already discovered:

https://zapier.com/blog/capitalize-text-titlecase/

 

[gregbatch]

Are you processing with mailing software?

 

[pabney]

Some jobs are with mailing software and some are not. At this time, we have decided to have our developer create something. I know it will never be 100%, but hopefully it will be better than nothing.