Preferences Menu > CMD Preferences > Preferences for Enter/Modify/Delete Names

A history list function has been built in to the the edit box for the Family Name field in Enter/Modify/Delete Names.

This means that when you type in a new name, CMD will search its current list of Family Name entries as you type. If an entry matches something already in CMD with the letters you've entered so far, the remainder of that entry will be displayed in the Family Name field edit box as highlighted text. As you keep typing, the highlighted matching text should eventually disappear. If it does, you know that the family name you are entering is unique. However, if it continues to display blue highlighted characters for the name, that means that this name is already in your file. In this case, click the X button in the navigation bar in the upper right corner to cancel the new family. This will enable you to keep from entering duplicate family names.

You can also open the drop-down box and see the list of names change as you type. Note that if your list is large, you may experience a short delay in the drop-down action.

This function can be turned off in one of two ways. First, you can keep it from even happening by unchecking the option on the Family Name History List page of the Local Preferences dialog. Or, you can right-click directly in the Family Name edit box and select the item from the pop-up menu to turn it off.

If your computer is slow, you are accessing CMD remotely, or your list is very large, you may wish to defeat this behavior as the default by unchecking it on the Local Preferences dialog. You can enable it anytime by right-clicking directly in the Family Name edit box and selecting the item to Activate/Refresh the History List.

This might be useful because CMD builds this list each time you come into Enter/Modify/Delete Names. Saving this list to disk causes undue delays in getting to your Enter/Modify/Delete Names dialog.