The Address Abbreviation Lists dialog is used to
add address variations, such as St for Street,
remove punctuation from addresses,
and truncate items such as suite numbers from addresses when geocoding.
The actions above help avoid mismatched addresses. These modifications do not affect the original address file, the modifications are used by MapViewer when matching your addresses to the geocoding data source file.
Substituted Words
Addresses may appear with multiple forms of a word in your address files. For example, one address may have Street, another may have St, and yet another address may have Str. These variations can cause an address mismatch. To avoid this problem, the variations can be added to the list in the Address Abbreviation Lists dialog. Original words are words that may appear in your address files. Substitution words are words that should match the geocoding street address files.
For example, you can enter "Street" as an original word and "St" as the substituted word. Every time "Street" is encountered in the address file, it is replaced with "St" when matching the addresses to the geocoding data source files. Note that if your geocoding data source file uses "Str" as the abbreviation and the substituted word is "St," this will cause a mismatch. So, you may need to do some research to see what common abbreviations your geocoding data source files use.
Punctuation
If the address list contains punctuation such as "St." the punctuation can be removed by adding the punctuation to the Address Abbreviation Lists dialog. If a period ( . ) is added to the list, every time a period is encountered in your address file it is removed when matching the addresses to the geocoding data source files.
Truncation
Including items such as suite numbers or apartment numbers can cause address mismatches. For example, an office building can have several suites on each floor, but there is typically only one address for the building. Including the suites cause mismatches. To truncate addresses for these conditions, add these strings to the Address Abbreviation Lists dialog. The string and everything after it are truncated when matching the addresses to the geocoding data source files.
Modifying and Adding Entries
You can double-click existing entries to edit them. To add a new entry, hold down the CTRL button and click in a list.
Default Abbreviations
To return to the MapViewer default abbreviations, click the Default Abbreviation List button.