Reduction of duplicate names in data entry forms

The office of the future is conceived of as an increasingly automated office. To produce significant improvements when office procedures become automated, adjustments will have to be made in the way current office operations are performed. One of the important office operations is data entry. This paper describes current problems with data entry forms and discusses a method, called the syntax method, through which some of the problems can be eliminated. In particular, the technique used in this method for identifying duplicate names and improving the names of the elements is described. Results from a test of the method on three Department of Defense Contractor Cost Performance Forms are provided.