How to stop auto-correct - especially in company names

Cindy Avery

Does anyone have a solution to the very FRUSTRATING auto-correct in Address that changes BNY Mellon, NA to Bny Mellon Na. This is only one example and it happens all the time but this is the first time I thought to capture it. Any help is appreciated!!

Jennifer McHale

Is this happening in Raiser's Edge?

Cindy Avery

Yes.

Jennifer McHale

Sorry, can't be of help! My addresses remain as I type them.

I did a quick look through some of the settings, but nothing is jumping out at me. I'm sure someone will know the answer!

 

Jen Claudy

It's been years since I worked at an org that had it, but do you by chance have AddressAccelerator and is it by chance set to auto format addresses when you edit them?  If that is the case, then I would look for settings.  And I think this would be only if you are typing in the org name as the first line of the address.

Cindy Avery

Yes, we do have Address Accelerator. The only way I know how to prevent the "auto-correct" is to turn it off which sort of defeats all the good the program does.

Spencer Smith

Cindy Avery:

Yes, we do have Address Accelerator. The only way I know how to prevent the "auto-correct" is to turn it off which sort of defeats all the good the program does.

One thing we do and it's not ideal is to add "care of" or c/o at the begining of an address. For us some addresses like 120 Avenue E would change to 120 Avenue East. The address is 120 Avenue E.

Ryan Hyde

Cindy Avery:

Yes, we do have Address Accelerator. The only way I know how to prevent the "auto-correct" is to turn it off which sort of defeats all the good the program does.

We also use AddressAccelerator, which most of the time is fantastic, but it does cause these sorts of problems. AddressAccelerator is tied to the USPS database (as far as I understand), and it always returns the USPS nomenclature for certain types of data. 


For instance, there's a town called Macedon near us, and whenever I'm adding a new donor from there and run AddressAccelerator, it transforms the town name to MacEdon. There's clearly a rule in the USPS system that says "IF city begins with 'mac,' capitalize 4th letter of town name." I have a global change I run periodically to fix this.


In your case, since these are one-off addresses, just run accelerator once to update the zip code and that sort of thing, then re-type the main address and leave an annotation on there telling folks not to run AddressAccelerator again. This will fix the problem unless you tend to do bulk address updates.

Cindy Avery

I
replied privately because of your reference to Macedon. I grew up
in Upstate NY (Aurora, NY – home of Wells College – on Cayuga Lake)
and know the Rochester area well. Thanks for the memory!

 

Cindy
Avery

Development
Assistant / Gift Specialist

Stamford
Hospital Foundation

1351
Washington Blvd, Ste 202

Stamford,
CT  06902

203-276-5934

 

Gracie Schild

Wow, that's kind of scary when it happens in your own database!  We get that kind of idiocy every time we send out a list to be printed by someone else (our YEA envelopes are printed at an outside printer and then we print the letters and stuff them here in the office with volunteers).  Every time they run our nice clean list through their program, it changes NMAI to Nmai, and our own street name, Avan Nu Po Road, to A Van Nu PO Road - sheesh! I know my predecessor used AddressAccelerator - I'm going to make sure it's not on auto-correct just in case the NMAI one is slipping by me.  I learn something new almost every day in this community - I just wish it wasn't BAD news so often!!

Ryan Hyde

I just want to voice some support for AddressAccelerator. By and large, it reduces data error by making corrections to street names when we write them incorrectly (as humans are prone to do), it consistently applies abreviations in a standardized way, it informs you when an address is likely invalid (which allows me to pause and do a little digging to verify - 9/10 times it's right, and most of the time I can find the correct address without getting a failed letter bounced back to me), and it appends the 4 digit zip code extension, which increases delivery accuracy. Since its primary use case is record-by-record (you can do bulk changes, but it's not necessarily obvious how to make this happen), it's easy to fix errors that it may produce in the off case when that happens. You do have to actually hit a button (or a keyboard shortcut) to make it work on a record, so you do have complete control over the tool.


If I were to move to a new org that didn't have AddressAccelerator, I would absolutely beg to get the tool because it does a lot more good than harm. 

Cindy Avery

Don't get me wrong, I love AddressAccelerator 99% of the time. I just get frustrated with these one-offs. I'm confused by your statement (it's easy to fix errors that it may produce in the off case when that happens. You do have to actually hit a button (or a keyboard shortcut) to make it work on a record, so you do have complete control over the tool) because, for me, it seems to work automatically. As soon as I tab off the zipcode field, AA takes over and corrects the address and adds the +4 or tells me if the address is invalid. Do you know how to stop it from changing (primarily) company names and corporation suffixes?? I just thought of another example? I changes Jones and Jones LLP to Jones and Jones Llp. I just think this makes our organization look inept when we are sending a solicitation.

Melissa S Graves

a) You can change address accelerator to not run automatically - I believe it is in config -business rules. However I advise against doing that.


b) Why is Jones and Jones, LLP even in the address lines part of anyone's address? I think this may be your problem. If this is an employer then it should be in the org name on the employer record and only the address fields in the address lines. Address lines should truly only contain address line information - not organization names.

Cindy Avery

Interesting thought . . . if John Doe prefers us to correspond with him at his business address we use his individual record and enter his business address which is then checked as preferred. In those cases, the title of the business/firm etc. could contain LLP or some other business "nomenclature." If I understand correctly, Melissa, you are suggesting that this is not the best way to enter an individual's address if their preferred address is other than their home. Correct??

Melissa S Graves

That is not the best way. Here is what I recommend:

• Enter the business info using the business button on Bio 1. That will do 2 things. create an org relationship checked as primary business AND create an address record as alternate business. be sure the "print organization name with address" checkbox is checked - it should be by default. Close this screen.
• Then open address record from the address tab and check that it should now be primary. 

Unfortunately - on the address record (and Bio 1) all you will see is the street address but if you export the organization name as one of the address fields - it too will export (provided you do not go into the relationship and uncheck the print organization name with address checkbox). This is the "proper" way to make a company address the primary one - it just sucks that RE does not display this part of the address properly - but it will export in both mail and export properly - just remember that field! And AddressAccelerator will work properly.

Cindy Avery

Thanks, Melissa!! I'll give it a try. As we all learn the hard way, sometimes how we are taught to do something by a predecessor isn't always the best way. :-)