Importing contacts is the fastest way to bring an existing list into your TntMPD database. Many new TntMPD users already have an existing file of some kind, either in Excel, Access, or even Word. Or you may have an existing contact manager such as Outlook, Palm Desktop, ACT!, etc. Importing an existing list of contacts may be faster than inputting the list by hand.

Downloading Names & Addresses from the Web

The fastest and easiest way to get names and addresses into your database is to download them directly from your organization. Once you do this, your only administrative steps are to

Import Contacts from Outlook

The advantage of importing from Outlook is that you may already have a vast amount of information already in Outlook and this is a relatively quick way to get them into TntMPD. The disadvantage is that TntMPD will compare your entire contact list in Outlook with TntMPD; you cannot pick which ones to import prior to running the Import. So if you have a lot of contacts in Outlook that you do not want in TntMPD, you will have to click "No Match" many times. (You will also have to click "Yes" for each one that does match.)

Import Contacts from Text

Regardless of what software you currently keep your contact list in (Word, Excel, Access, Palm Desktop, etc.), you can export that information to a comma-separated values (.csv) text file, and use that to import into TntMPD.

If you can connect to your organization and download gifts, you may still benefit from importing your contacts because you can control the way their names and addresses appear, as well as import additional information your organization does not store (such as pledge amount and frequency, referrer, birthdays, and much more). Then, when you link to your organization, TntMPD will attempt to match downloaded contacts to your existing list.

Importing contacts should not be regarded as "simple" and should be done only by those who feel comfortable manipulating data in Excel. Also, you may have to use trial and error and attempt to import several times before getting it correct. This topic is not intended to be a step-by-step guide of how to import contacts from a file but rather an overview of the basic concepts.

Regardless of where your existing contacts are, it will be easiest to import them if they are in an Excel file. When you are finished creating the file, you will save the file as a .csv (comma-separated values) file. (You can export Outlook contacts to a .csv format; you can also save Word or Access files directly to .csv.)

The first step in importing contacts is ensuring the purity of your existing list. For example, many missionaries might have a list that looks like this:

TntMPD, however, would want this same contact to appear like this:

Tip: TntMPD has some special file maintenance features, both Split Titles and Split First Names to help resolve this situation.

Where you really benefit from importing contacts is when you can import existing data that's not available from your organization. For example, your contacts' pledge information and other personal information such as children, birthdays and anniversaries, additional phone numbers and/or email addresses, church name, referrer names, etc.

On most of the biographical fields, you can choose which contacts have information. For example, you may know the church name for only a handful of your contacts.

Many of the data fields require data for every contact if you choose to import that field. For example, if you choose to import the MPD Phase field, you must put an MPD Phase for every contact or the import will not work. This is true of at least the following fields:

Once you are ready to import, go to File | Import Contacts. You have to match the fields in your file to TntMPD's fields (that is, you do not have to have the field names perfect in your file before you attempt to import.)