Crossover storyline in Item Description

Diamond has more frequently included storyline data or crossover codes in the item description field in the last few months. As this "pollutes" the Item Description field so that it is not the same each month, it cause these comics to not be found during the Auto-Pull process of CBPF. There are a few ways to handle this in CBPF, but I did it a new way this month which seemed to work well so I'm passing it on to you.

This month there were a plethora of Batman titles not found in the Reconciliation form. So I noticed at the bottom of the Reconciliation Form that Batman was titled as 'BATMAN (FOE)'. I went to the Diamond All form and typed the following in the filter fields at the top of the form

1. 'NOV08' in the First BatchNo,
   
2. '(FOE)' in the Item Description
3. clicked the Item Description Contains radio button.
4. click the ReQuery button
   

This limits the results to the November Previews, looking for the extraneous info which I want to get rid of from anywhere within the Item Description field.

From this point, you simply click the mouse pointer in the Item Description field at the end of the '(FOE)' and backspace over the '(FOE)'. It is important to remove the space in front of the '(FOE)' also. Do this for each offending record (row). Note: you may not want to do this for TPs, T-shirts, etc.

At this point you have the file in the format which Diamond used to use. Close the Reconciliation form (if you haven't already). Then you can return to do button '1. Find Monthly Items' over again. Do button '2. Reconcile Not Found Items' again and the items which were not found previously, should now be found. Remember that button one can be done multiple times, so if you make corrections in the Diamond All form, button one can be done again.

Removing the '(FOE)' from the Item Description field has the drawback of you not being able to search for all '(FOE)' items quickly within the Diamond All form. However, you can accomplish the same search by using 'faces of evil' in the Previews Description filter field. This searches the Previews catalog data for the crossovers. You must import the Previews DB file each month from Diamonds' website to be able to search the Previews Catalog data.

HTH,
James

If you come up with a tip you'd like to share with the CBPF community, leave a response here, or better yet, write up an article like this one and I'll post it here. Make sure you are very clear on each step (not everyone is as smart as you are). Also, proofread what you've written, before sending it to me. I may edit the article before posting if I think I can make it more clear.