There are 27 files, one for each Swiss canton or half-canton, plus one for Liechtenstein, constituting the institutions index, in which institutions are arranged alphabetically by town. Finally, a town index helps to find an institution without having to know in which canton it is located. All these files can be accessed from the title page, in 1 to 4 steps. Finally, a dash separates a field from the other, in order to make reading easier. C. Comments about these fields 1.
Families precede persons of the same name.
Particules, which were rejected in the printed edition, are maintained in front of the name, but ignored in sorting. References In a collections' descriptions file, a name may be linked to a record belonging to another file. In this electronic edition, birth and death dates are not surrounded by anything, and dates of collection are surrounded by round brackets. Place of conservation Records indicate the place of storage . Some institutions, owning collections but having deposited them in another institution, are however listed and followed by the name and address of the institution where they deposited their collections.