Thanks for reply. Yes I do read the replies -in fact I have your replies printed out in front of me.The problem is that with 'scan CD rom' or 'bar code' to add new items they often come up with first name then Surname. I just wanted to put all these -say " Benjamin Britten" together, perhaps in a text query and do a "Britten,Benjamin" copy and paste from there. Brian
Any thought on my other query about renumbering? Brian