This is only a minor annoyance, but a fix for this problem would nevertheless make things easier. When entering data either using forms or workbench there's always a risk of adding extra leading or trailing spaces into text field. Currently, Specify doesn't understand that "text " and "text" actually mean the same thing. Trailing/leading extra spaces are much harder to spot than other typos.

For example, when entering determination data via workbench, someone can accidentally type " Bryum" into genus field instead of "Bryum". The result of this kind of error is a group of duplicate entries with the same information but with just different names. When this data is then uploaded, Specify can't find correct entry from the taxon tree and creates a new genus. If the person who entered the data doesn't remember to check this before upload, he/she'll have to manually correct all afterwards.

Could it be possible to have a checkbox in preferences where you could enable/disable trimming entries? At least programmatically this shouldn't be too hard (personally, I'm a heavy user of java.lang.String.trim() :)

Best regards
Erno Kuusela