When making decisions about using a computer for conservation documentation and surveys, a balance must be reached between the freedom of a human being and the literal nature of the technology. This paper deals with the process of transforming a written documentation survey form into a conputerized database. The field of conservation, like all professions, is in the midst of the computer revolution, and the thought process of translating our current practices for documentation into bits and bytes is a pressing issue. There are many issues relating to the theories of documentation. This paper does not attempt to deal with all of them, but simply shares the experience of one specific situation; the thought process involved in making such a change, and how those thought processes may be relevant to other surveys and applications.