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Name Field Settings

The Last name, First name, Middle name, and Nickname fields appear on the Core and Contacts tab of volunteer records, as well as the main tab of Coordinator records.

Image of Name Fields

This help topic explains how to set the field properties for the name fields. The List of All Fields shows all of the fields available in the system along with the tab where the field is used.

To get to the page to set field properties:

  1. Select Setup on the menu.

  2. Go to Field options.

  3. Select the tab where the field appears. For example, to change the properties of the Last name field for volunteers, select Core tab.

  4. Select the field you'd like to work with.

Field location:

This section shows where the field you are working with is located.

A Note About Location

While all of the Name Field Property Setup pages look similar, each field's setup is independent of the others. For example, if you change the name of the Nickname field on the Core tab of volunteer records to be Preferred name, it will not impact the name of the Nickname field on the volunteer Contacts tab or on Coordinator records.

Type of field:

Information is stored in several types of fields in Volgistics. This section indicates the name fields are text fields.

Field name:

This is the first place on the Field Properties setup page where a System Operator can make a change to the field. To change the name of the field, delete the text and enter the name you would like to change the field to.

Field Name and Purpose

Please be aware that while you can re-name a field this does not change how the field was intended to be used. For example, if Nickname has been re-named Notes and is used to store a short note about the volunteer, these notes will appear on the Who's Here page if it is set to include the Nickname field.

Hidden:

Select No if you want the field to show on the tab, or Yes if you do not want the field to show. Because the Last name and First name fields are essential for creating and searching for volunteer and Coordinator records, it is generally not a good idea to hide those fields.

When a field is hidden, System Operators will not see the field or any information entered in it before the field was hidden. However, any information that was in the field before it was hidden will still be there if you later unhide the field.

Require an entry:

Select No if you want it to be possible for a record to be saved without any information in the field. Select Yes if you want to require information to be in the field when a record is saved.

In most cases, you'll only want to require a field if it is essential that the field is completed. For example, the Last name on volunteer records is used for creating and searching for records so it should always have information in it. However, a volunteer may not have a Nickname so setting it to required could cause frustration because operators would be unable to save a record unless they put text into the field.

Default entry:

Most likely, your name fields will not have a default so the Default entry will be left blank. In the event that you always want certain text to show in the field when a new record is made, enter the text as the default entry.

System operator rights

A Volgistics Administrator can add new operator records and assign one of three user levels:

  • Administrator
  • Power user
  • Basic user

Access to the system can be customized according to the operator's user level using the System operator rights section of the Field Properties setup page. The Set Field Rights section of the How to Limit System Operator Rights or Access help topic explains more.