Overview
Lookups allow you to narrow down your list of contacts into usable groups. They help you identify contacts who meet certain criteria you choose.
There are two primary types of lookups:
| 1. | By Field. Queries your database and returns all contacts who meet the single criteria chosen. Examples: Home State=MN, Pledge > 0, etc. Many of the lookups on the Lookup menu are pre-written, By Field lookups. |
| 2. | By List. Whatever group of contacts you are looking at, when you select By List, you are given a list—with checkboxes—of that group. You can then create a custom lookup by checking specific contacts. |
While custom lookups are can be challenging until you learn how to write them, you can often get the results you want by doing successive simple lookups by field or by list.
Successive Lookups
| • | You can do a lookup to narrow down your list, then do a lookup within that current group, then another, then another, etc., to find the current group that meets your needs. TntMPD will display all of the lookup criteria that returned the current group. |
| • | In this example, the total number of contacts in the database is 59. The question asked of the database was "Show me all partners from Florida whose monthly pledge is at least $50 each month." |
| • | First, you do the first lookup using Replace the current group. Then you do the next two using Lookup within the current group. |
Results
At the top of the Current Group, TntMPD shows the Current Lookup, the lookup(s) that returned the results in the Current Group.
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The lookups returned the following:
MPD Phase = PARTNER-Financial (37 of the 59)
Monthly Pledge => $50 (22 of the 37)
Mailing State begins with FL (17 of the 22)
These contacts could have been looked up in any order.
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You can save any lookup as a favorite for future use.
Lookup Menu
The Lookup Menu offers many lookup options. Some of the lookups are “By Field” lookups where TntMPD pre-selects By Field and the chosen field. Regardless of which Lookup you choose, you will be taken to the Contact Lookup dialog box to enter the criteria for your lookup.
Contact Lookup Dialog Box
Control center for TntMPD lookups.
| 1. | Replace the current group. Creates a new group based on the results of this Lookup. This is the default every time you do a lookup. |
| 2. | Lookup within the current group. Creates a new group from the current group based on your lookup criteria. Good for successive lookups. |
| 3. | Add to the current group. Examines contacts NOT in the current group; those who meet the chosen criteria will be added to the group. |
| 4. | Take away from the current group. Removes those contacts from the displayed group if they meet the criteria you selected. |
When you select a Field, the Comparison options will offer selections based on that field and the Values drop-down box will list all of the values for that field on the table. For example, if the field was “Send Newsletter”, the comparison would be “is exactly” or “is not” and the available values only “TRUE” and “FALSE”.
Note: In the example below, the picture has been modified to show all three drop-down boxes at the same time.
