Importing contact category data from Excel
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:23 pm
DM has ten user definable categories that can be check-marked for all that are true of a particular contact. For example, the category "Family member" can be checked for each contact that is related to you. Or you could create a category called "Ministry Adviser" and check this for each contact who is willing to give advice on relating to supporters. This feature makes it easy to filter contacts according to categories.
If you have a system in which you already classify contacts according to varioius categories, you can migrate that information to DM via the import from Excel feature.
The trick is to have a separate column for each category in your Excel spreadsheet and to mark each contact with the word "TRUE" (without quote marks) in the categories that are true for them. DM will interpret the word "TRUE" as a check mark to be put in the DM record. DM interprets blank Excel cells and cells that have the word "FALSE" as unchecked in the DM record.
For example if John Doe is a ministry adviser and a family member, one would type TRUE in the Ministry Adviser and Family Member columns next to John Doe's name in the Excel spreadsheet.
In DM you would need to define which user lists to use for these categories. For example you might set User List 7 to Ministry Adviser and User List 8 to Family Member.
When setting up the import you then map the column headers from your Excel spreadsheet to the proper user lists in DM and proceed.
The result should be that John Doe will have the boxes for user lists 7 and 8 (which should be labeled Ministry Adviser and Family Member on the screen) checked in the DM detail pane.
If you have a system in which you already classify contacts according to varioius categories, you can migrate that information to DM via the import from Excel feature.
The trick is to have a separate column for each category in your Excel spreadsheet and to mark each contact with the word "TRUE" (without quote marks) in the categories that are true for them. DM will interpret the word "TRUE" as a check mark to be put in the DM record. DM interprets blank Excel cells and cells that have the word "FALSE" as unchecked in the DM record.
For example if John Doe is a ministry adviser and a family member, one would type TRUE in the Ministry Adviser and Family Member columns next to John Doe's name in the Excel spreadsheet.
In DM you would need to define which user lists to use for these categories. For example you might set User List 7 to Ministry Adviser and User List 8 to Family Member.
When setting up the import you then map the column headers from your Excel spreadsheet to the proper user lists in DM and proceed.
The result should be that John Doe will have the boxes for user lists 7 and 8 (which should be labeled Ministry Adviser and Family Member on the screen) checked in the DM detail pane.