Hi Charles

The 'Recommended taxon name' is the scientific name - what a shame there is not a 'Recommended taxon common name' that uses the latest checklist!

Is there a way of changing the names in each record to bring them up to date?

All the best, Ian

If you want to use common names other than the system supplied ones in Recorder you can add them to your system using Dictionaries – Edit Taxon Details. This opens up a different view of the dictionary to which you can add a variety of information, including your preferred common names for any species in the dictionary – see the context sensitive help (F1) for more information. A user in Wales had common names in their Recorder 3 system that were the Welsh common name and the English common name combined, e.g. ‘Blodyn y Gog / Lady's Smock’. When they transferred their data a few years ago, i.e. before Recorder 6, these did not transfer correctly so they got me to correct their Recorder 2002 database so that these common names were available to them in Recorder 2002.

To do something like this in Recorder 6:

Use Dictionaries – Edit Taxon Details from the main menu
Select the require dictionary list and the required species from within it using ‘Find a taxon’ (binoculars)
Click [Edit] and select the Taxon Names tab
Enter the required Taxon Name and Language, and tick the box to the left of the Taxon Name – this will untick the ‘Use standard common name’ above and says you want the name you entered used instead of the system supplied common name.

Now, if you go to an observation for this species in the observation hierarchy you will see the common name you have entered instead of the system supplied one, provided ‘Use Common Names’ is ticked on the General tab in Tools – Options, and provided you have added your common name to all the lists in the taxon dictionary you have used to enter data for the species concerned. The common name you have added will also be the one that is used in reports.

This works because you are not changing system supplied data, you are adding a new entry to the Taxon_user_name table for the species concerned and simply using that instead of the system supplied common name. I believe this is specific to your copy of Recorder, i.e. that the names you add will not be exported, hence someone importing your data will need to add these names to their copy of Recorder if they want to use them. To be sure of this, I would need to test it again in Recorder 6.

If you add the common names you want to use to each dictionary list you have used for data entry then sort on common name I think you will get results you want in reports.