CAA Product Help

(HELP ?) Circles provide narratives on Training, Explanations, and Hints. These can be related to the overall screen, or to specific items on the screen.

This (HELP ?) Circle narrative is for the "CHANGE CUSTOM FIELD VALUES" Screen.

General Overview:

The screen is used to change values in a Custom Data Field from one value to another value. You can use this screen to reassign the values in some or all contract records.

For example, you could perform a "mass move" of members in one Sunday School class to another Sunday School class. Or you could change the status in some contact records to a different status.

** Note: Changes applied using this screen will only be made to "active" records. If some contact records have been excluded (made inactive) before coming to this screen (with the Retain Select function or the Search & Select function, for example), they will not be changed. Only active contact records will be changed.

Selecting Active Records:

You came to this screen from the "CUSTOM FIELD" Screen. On that screen, you clicked "CHANGE" Hyperlink in the "CHANGE" Column.

Before you come to this screen, you have to select the "Active Records" or in other words, the People you want to change. You can change the entire database of People records, or you can narrow the list to just certain people.

If, for example, you want to change a field value from "A" to "B" for all people in the database, you do not have to narrow the list. The process will look at each person and if they currently have the value of "A" in that field, it will be changed the value to "B". Anyone with a value other that "A" will not be changed.

If you want to change only certain people because some that have a value of "A" you want to change but others with a value of "A" you want to leave as "A":

- Start by clicking the "CONTACTS" Tab on the Operations Bar . That will take you to the "CONTACTS" Screen Display Panel .

- Then click the "SEARCH" Hyperlink in the Navigation Panel .

- Use the "SEARCH CONTACTS" Screen to search for the Contact Records (People) you want to change.

- When the Search returns you to the "CONTACTS" Screen , the number of selected records or people will appear on the Display Panel just above the Column Headers. The number of Active Records will be followed by the word, "Total".

After selecting the People you want to change, proceed to the "CUSTOM FIELD" Screen where you pick the Custom Data Field you want to change.

Selecting a Custom Field:

Before you come to the "CUSTOM FIELD" Screen, you have to select the "Active Records" or in other words, the People you want to change. "Selecting Active Records" is described above.

Now you select the "Custom Data Field" you want to change. Find the Field Name in the "CONTENTS" Column on the Display Panel . Then click the "CHANGE" Hyperlink for that Data Field in the "CHANGE" Column.

If there is not a "CHANGE" Hyperlink for that Data Field, then you cannot use this process to change that Custom Field.

Applying the Value Change:

After selecting the Active Records and selecting the Custom Field to be changed for those active People, you will be on this "CHANGE CUSTOM FIELD VALUES" Screen.

The Display Panel section of the this screen is the large area immediately under the Information Bar and just to the right of the Navigation Panel . It shows you how to change the Custom Data Field value assigned to one or more people, and change it to a different data value assigned to the same people.

In this Display Panel , you will see two columns. The first column is labeled, "Current Value" and the second column is labeled, "Changes To".

The "CURRENT VALUE" Column shows you all the possible values in the Custom Field that could be assigned to people you have selected (Active Records).

The "CHANGES TO" Column shows you all the possible values that could be put into the Custom Field for the people you have selected (Active Records).

Turn on one (CURRENT VALUE) Radio Button and one (CHANGES TO) Radio Button. You are saying you want the "Current Value" selected to be changed to the "Changes To" value selected "" for all the currently Active Records.

To apply the change to all the currently Active Records, click the [CHANGE VALUES] Button. If you leave this Display Panel before clicking this button, your updates will not be applied.

Example of Why You Would Use This Feature:

If your church has Sunday School classes, at the end of the Sunday School year you may want to do a "promotion" from one class to the next. You can do that in three ways:

- Uuse the "PROFILE" Screen and change each person one at a time. This could take a while if there are several individuals to promote (several contact records to change).

- Use the [DO A PROMOTION] Button on the "GRADE CONFIGURATION" Screen. This works well if "all" people in the class are promoting. For example, 2nd grade is promoting to 3rd grade. However, this does not work if your class is 1st & 2nd graders. The 1st graders should stay in this class, while the 2nd graders should be promoted to 3rd grade. This feature doesn't work very well if some promote, some stay.

- Do a "mass change" using this "CHANGE CUSTOM FIELD VALUES" Screen.

For example, let's say you have a Custom Field named "Sunday School Class Attending Now". It is a "Group Drop-Down Box" field type, meaning on the "PROFILE" Screen you would see a menu selection list of all the Sunday School classes, and you could pick one to assign to the person.

If you come to this "CHANGE CUSTOM FIELD VALUES" Screen Display Panel , you would see all the Sunday School classes listed in both the "CURRENT VALUE" Column and the "CHANGES TO" Column.

You could select the "11th & 12th Grade" class in the "CURRENT VALUE" Column and the "College" class or an "Adult" class in the "CHANGES TO" Column. After applying the change, the "active people" who were in the "11th & 12th Grade" class will now be in the "College" or "Adult" class. The "11th & 12th Grade" class will be empty if all records were "active", or the 11th graders will be left (and become the 12th graders) if they were "inactive".

Continue this process all the way down to moving your Nursery class to the Age 1 class, etc. This will be a much quicker way of moving or "promoting" people up to the next Age class or Grade class, instead of doing it one person at a time.

"CAA Product Help" from CAA Ministries at Support@CAAsoftware.com or 404-551-4230